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LETTERS  TO 
A  FRIEND  * 

A  CHRISTIAN 

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MIND    OVER    BODY 


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LETTERS   TO   A    FRIEND- 
A    CHRISTIAN   SCIENTIST 


BOSTON 

JAMES    H.    WEST   COMPANY 


Copyright,  1909 
By  James  H.  West  Company 


NOTE 

The  writer  of  these  letters  —  origi- 
nally written  to  a  friend,  as  the  title 
indicates  —  refrains  for  two  reasons 
from  attaching  his  name  to  them. 

The  first  reason  will  readily  be  appre- 
ciated by  such  readers  of  the  letters  as 
are  in  the  habit  of  doing  their  own 
thinking.  It  is  that  the  majority  of 
readers  magnify  or  minimize  the  value 
of  an  argument,  or  statement,  according 
as  they  estimate  the  importance  of  the 
writer. 

The  second  reason  is  that  the  writer 
feels  that  he  has  merely  put  together 
ideas  of  others,  none  of  them  new ;  and 
therefore  that  he  has  no  claim  to  author- 
ship. So  he  merely  subscribes  him- 
self  as 

Editor. 


The  great  historic  problem  —  the  problem 
alike  of  our  earliest  religions  and  our  latest 
philosophic  culture  —  has  been  to  reconcile 
Nature  and  man,  to  fuse  flesh  and  spirit,  to 
wed  force  and  freedom,  to  harmonize  law  and 
gospel,  to  marry  mechanism  and  morals  ;  in 
short,  permanently  to  unite  the  indefinitely 
great,  which  is  the  superb  overbearing  cos- 
mos, with  the  indefinitely  small,  which  is  our 
humble  domestic  earth,  the  pleasant  house  of 
our  abode,  that  whatsoever  is  most  outward 
or  public  and  profane  in  existence  may  find 
itself  authenticated  by  that  which  is  most  in- 
ward or  private  and  sacred  ;  that  so  whatso- 
ever is  most  absolute  or  material  and  there- 
fore domineering  and  cruel  in  experience, 
may  become  sanctified  by  association  with 
whatsoever  is  most  contingent,  most  moral  or 
free,  and  therefore  most  gracious,  pliable, 
and  orderly. 

—  Henry  James  ( the  senior). 


MIND    OVER    BODY: 

LETTERS    TO    A    FRIEND  —  A    CHRIS 
TIAN    SCIENTIST 


"  We  have  naught  to  fear  from  ultimate  knowledge  if 
we  but  conquer  all  false  shame,  and  quarry  deep  enough." 

— Richard  Wagner. 

Denver,  Colo., 

Dear  Friend : 

Your  frequent  letters  to  me    during   the 

past  two  years,  urging  with  great  persistency 

that  I  become  a  Christian  Scientist,  and  set- 

ing  forth  your  reasons  why  I  should  do  so, 

were  carefully  and  thoughtfully  read,  each  at 

the  time  it  was  received.     That  I  have  not 

replied  to  them  is  no  doubt  inexplicable  to 

you,  in  view  of  the  warm  friendship  of  our 

boyhood  days,  which,   I  sincerely   hope  and 

believe,  still  exists,  notwithstanding  that  our 

diverging  paths  in  life  have  latterly  put  be- 


6  Mind  Over  Body 

tween  us  the  width  of  a  continent.  Why  I 
so  persistently  refrained  from  entering  into 
a  controversy  with  you,  I  shall  explain  in 
my  next  letter. 

Much  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  Science  and 
Health,  appeals  to  me;  there  is  a  spiritual 
uplift  to  parts  of  it  that  are  not  so  mystical 
as  to  be  incomprehensible  to  the  reader.  I 
agree  with  many  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  postulates 
—  though  some  of  the  positions  that,  with 
her,  are  assumptions,  I  reach  as  conclusions. 
Much  good  is  resulting  from  Christian  Sci- 
ence having  entered  the  fields  of  religion, 
philosophy,  and  therapeutics. 

Because  of  these  circumstances  I  regret 
the  unsympathetic  criticisms  —  generally 
unintelligent  and  too  often  acrimonious  — 
that  are  being  made  upon  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
Christian  Science  by  members  of  the  clergy 
and  by  various  magazines  and  newspapers. 
These  attacks  —  for  the  most  part  irrelevant 
to  the  philosophy  of  Christian  Science  —  cannot 
but  result,  on  the  one  hand,  in  preventing  un- 
thinking  antagonists  from    discovering  such 


Mind  Over  Body  7 

good  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  philosophy ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  in  a  tendency  to 
close  the  minds  of  its  devotees  to  any  ana- 
lytical examination. 

While  the  arguments  —  or  assertions  — 
pro  and  con,  as  to  the  authorship  of  the 
book,  Science  and  Health,  may  be  inter- 
esting from  an  historical  point  of  view,  they 
cannot  determine  the  value  of  the  contents 
of  the  book  itself.  Similarly,  Shakespeare's 
dramas  will  stand  or  fall  regardless  of  whether 
written  by  Shakespeare  or  by  Bacon.  The 
sublime  beauty  of  the  Beatitudes  does  not 
depend  upon  the  authenticity  of  the  author- 
ship ascribed  to  the  Gospels  that  contain 
them,  nor  even  upon  the  question  as  to  who 
uttered  them. 

There  are  those  who  cite  the  "  fouling  "  of 
the  manna  in  the  possession  of  those  Israel- 
ites who  accumulated  it  in  the  wilderness,  as 
symbolical  of  the  torments  that  have  come 
to  Mrs.  Eddy  because  of  her  material  pos- 
sessions. This  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
truth  or  falsity  of  Christian  Science. 


8  Mind  Over  Body 

Professedly  with  the  purpose  of  making 
the  Christian  Science  church  services  im- 
personal, all  sermonizing  is  prohibited,  and 
the  book,  Science  and  Health,  is  made  the 
pastor.  There  are  those  who  claim  that  this 
intention  is  nullified  by  the  introduction  of  the 
personality  of  Mrs.  Eddy  into  the  services, 
her  name  being  announced  each  Sunday  as 
the  author  of  Science  and  Health;  and  by 
the  further  fact  that  once  each  month  the 
authorship  of  one  of  the  songs,  sung  that  day, 
is  ascribed  to  her.  This  is  another  criticism 
that  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  intellectual 
aspect  of  the  philosophy. 

The  controversies  as  to  which  of  the  two 
injunctions  of  Christ  should  prevail,  "The 
laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,"  as  a  justifica- 
tion for  the  acceptance  of  fees  and  salaries, 
for  the  prices  charged  for  Christian  Science 
books,  lectures,  etc.;  and,  "  Freely  ye  have  re- 
ceived, freely  give,"  as  a  basis  for  condemna- 
tion of  alleged  commercialism,  —  these  contro- 
versies have  no  bearing  on  the  rationality  of 
the  philosophy. 


Mind  Over  Body  9 

On  the  other  hand,  I  am  not  influenced 
by  the  array  of  dukes,  earls,  judges,  promi- 
nent business  and  professional  men,  and 
others,  whose  names  and  titles  are,  because 
of  their  eminence,  being  exploited  by  Chris- 
tian Science  writers  of  magazine  articles  for 
their  psychological  effect  on  readers  whom 
such  names  influence.  Many  there  are  who 
"  to  the  fascination  of  a  name  surrender  judg- 
ment hoodwinked." 

Nor  do  the  letters  in  the  Christian  Science 
periodicals,  fulsomely  adulatory  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
have  weight  with  me. 

I  deprecate,  as  irrelevant,  all  these  things 
that  I  have  mentioned.  None  of  them  touches 
the  philosophy  of  Christian  Science.  None 
of  them  has  any  interest  for  me ;  except,  per- 
haps, as  it  indicates  states  of  mind  of  individ- 
uals. 

And  here  I  wish  to  indulge  in  a  little 
retrospection.  The  atmosphere  of  the  home 
of  your  youth  and  of  mine  was  identical. 
We  both  were  urged  by  our  parents  to 
maintain    an    analytical    state   of    mind ;    to 


io  Mind  Over  Body 

refuse  to  accept  a  conclusion  in  any  line 
of  thought  —  excepting  that  of  theology  — 
without  first  sifting  and  examining  for  our- 
selves the  premises,  and  the  process  of 
reasoning  by  which  it  was  reached.  But  our 
religious  views  were  given  to  us  as  conclu- 
sive ;  they  were  not  to  be  questioned.  They 
were  not  held  by  us  as  convictions ;  though 
this  we  did  not  know,  for  we  gave  no  thought 
to  the  matter.  We  had  tacitly  accepted  as 
true,  doctrines  that  had  been  taught  us  from 
childhood  by  those  in  whom  we  had  implicit 
confidence  as  competent  to  judge  those  mat- 
ters for  us.  Our  religious  education  as  chil- 
dren and  as  young  people  differed  in  degree 
only,  not  in  kind,  from  that  of  the  Jesuit  as 
described  by  Prof.  G.  Lowes  Dickinson,  in 
one  of  his  essays,  as  follows :  — 

"  The  training  of  a  Jesuit  as  prescribed  in 
the  famous  Institutes  was  based  upon  a  process 
which  a  modern  man  of  science  might  de- 
scribe as  self-hypnotization.  By  intense  and 
solitary  meditation,  accompanied  by  physical 
exercises,  by  fastings,  flagellations,  postures, 
gfoanings,    weepings,   he   forced   himself,  so 


Mind  Over  Body  1 1 

far  as  possible,  to  re-enact  in  his  own  per- 
son the  Passion  of  Christ,  to  ascend  with  Him 
to  Heaven,  to  taste,  in  anticipation,  the  joys 
of  His  Kingdom,  and  to  share  the  tortures  of 
the  damned  in  hell.  Not  the  imagination 
only,  and  the  intelligence,  but  almost  the  very 
physical  senses,  were  compelled  to  co-operate 
in  this  deliberate  hallucination.  He  must  not 
only  think  and  conceive  ;  he  must  hear,  see, 
touch,  and  taste.  The  whole  personality,  intel- 
lectual, moral  —  one  might  almost  say  physical 
—  was  run  in  this  way  into  a  final  mold. 
That  it  should  take  that  shape,  uncritically, 
passively,  not  of  conviction  but  of  force,  was 
the  essence  of  the  whole  process.  But  once 
that  was  achieved,  development  was  permitted 
and  encouraged  along  the  lines  thus  rigidly 
prescribed.  The  mind  henceforth  was  the 
tool  of  unquestioning  faith.  It  might  calcu- 
late but  it  must  not  reason  ;  it  might  devise 
means  but  it  must  not  consider  ends.  Every 
accomplishment  the  Jesuit  may  and  should 
acquire ;  he  should  be  a  linguist,  a  mathema- 
tician, a  man  of  science,  perhaps  —  above  all, 
a  man  of  the  world,  accomplished,  polite,  per- 
suasive, plausible,  up  to  date  in  his  knowl- 
edge, his  methods,  his  arts  ;  he  may  be  any- 
thing and  everything,  so  long  as  he  obeys  and 
does  not  think.  He  may  study  history  as 
much  as  he  likes,  but  it  must  be  history  as  in- 
terpreted by  the  Church  ;  he  may  study  Latin 
and  Greek,  provided  that  he  remain  insensible 


12  Mind  Over  Body 

to  the  classical  spirit ;  he  may  study  science, 
so  long  as  he  does  not  permit  it  to  react  upon 
theology.  Nay,  all  these  things  he  ought  to 
study,  in  order  that  he  may  meet  the  enemy 
on  his  own  ground.  Only  that  the  enemy  is 
the  enemy,  that  the  truth  is  the  truth,  that 
the  Church  is  the  Church,  and  that  his  whole 
duty  is  to  subordinate  to  the  interest  of  his 
Order  all  his  powers,  spiritual,  moral,  and 
physical  —  this  is  the  never  forgotten  com- 
mand of  his  hypnotic  dream,  of  the  fixed  idea 
branded  upon  him  at  the  outset  of  his  career 
by  the  deliberately  non-rational  discipline  to 
which  he  has  been  subjected.  Once  for  all 
he  has  been  cured  of  the  possibility  of  asking, 
'  Why  ? '  His  reason  has  been  killed  ?  No ! 
It  has  been  chained  to  the  car  of  Faith,  and 
in  the  car  rides  theology  triumphant,  sur- 
rounded by  the  saints  of  the  Order,  and  crush- 
ing under  the  wheels  the  heretic,  the  specu- 
lator, and  the  unbeliever." 

This  is  an  extreme  illustration ;  but  it 
differs,  as  I  have  said,  only  in  degree  —  not 
in  kind  —  from  your  own  experience  and 
mine.  It  goes  to  show,  as  Professor  Dickin- 
son continues,  that 

"  It  is  the  object  of  an  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem not  merely  to  create  an  atmosphere,  but 
to  paralyze  beforehand  the  agency  by  which 


Mind  Over  Body  13 

that  atmosphere  might  be  disturbed  ;  with 
the  result,  no  doubt,  of  encouraging  stability, 
but  only  at  the  cost  of  arresting  growth." 

Many  of  the  idols  of  our  earlier  years  you 
and  I  have  shattered,  only  to  take  to  our- 
selves new  ones.  For  instance,  you  have 
repudiated  the  orthodox  interpretation  of  the 
meaning  of  the  birth  and  death  of  Christ. 
So  have  I,  though  the  interpretation  I  now 
hold  differs  from  that  which  you  now  believe 
to  be  true.  But,  as  young  people,  we  be- 
lieved the  doctrines  of  the  immaculate  con- 
ception and  the  vicarious  atonement  to  be 
truth. 

We  —  you  and  I  —  say  we  have  progressed. 
The  real  fact  is  that  we  have  changed  our 
minds,  and  "  Who  saw  false  once,  again  may 
falsely  see."  Do  you  see  falsely  now,  or  is 
it  I  ?  You  cannot  decide  fairly  without 
knowing  my  point  of  view.  And  you  have 
forced  me  to  give  it  to  you. 

But,  you  say  you  are  sure  you  have  the 
truth  now,  because  —  as  you  say  —  the  truth 
of  your  philosophy  is  proven  by  its  "demon- 


14  Mind  Over  Body 

stration."  And  this  brings  me  to  the  real 
matter  of  this,  my  first  letter  ;  and  that  is, 
to  ask  that  you  consent  to  some  "  rules  of 
procedure";  that  you  agree  to  separately 
consider  each  division  of  my  argument.  In 
other  words,  I  urge  that  you  keep  in  force 
that  habit  of  thought  —  so  marked  in  you  in 
our  school-days  —  of  insisting  that  first  steps 
shall  come  first ;  that  no  attempts  be  made 
to  reach  conclusions  until  primary  and  in- 
termediate phases  be  analyzed.  Applied  to 
this  subject,  this  means  that  —  as  I  have 
before  urged  —  you  weigh  separately  each 
part  of  my  argument.  If  you  would  under- 
stand me  at  all,  you  must  agree  to  go  with 
me  into  an  examination  of  two  separate 
phases  of  this  matter ;  —  first,  the  religious 
and  cosmic  philosophy  of  Christian  Science ; 
secondly,  the  relation  of  these  to  its  system 
of  therapeutics,  and  to  the  "  demonstration  " 
claimed  for  the  latter,  by  which  —  you  main- 
tain —  the  former  is  proven  to  be  true. 

If  you  will  not  so  consider  it,  it  is  useless 
for   me   to   go    further.     But,    as    Professor 


Mind  Over  Body  15 

Dickinson  says  in  the  series  of  essays  from 
which  I  have  quoted  —  the  same  being  not  a 
criticism  of  religion,  but  of  dogmatic  theology  : 

"  I  hardly  believe  that  it  will  be  those  who 
have  the  finest  sense  of  religion  that  will 
resent  my  candor.  Rather,  it  is  precisely 
they  who  will  be  most  willing  to  investigate 
the  ground  and  nature  of  their  belief,  and 
who  will  repudiate  the  application,  to  this 
momentous  question,  of  a  method  of  hushing 
up  and  slurring  over  which  they  would  depre- 
cate in  any  of  the  ordinary  business  of  life." 

And  again  he  says  : 

"  It  is  a  poor  religion  that  needs  to  rest 
upon  .  .  .  the  deliberate  refusal  to  face  what 
we  know  of  truth ;  that  takes  refuge  .  .  . 
from  a  truth  which  it  fears  may  be  fatal  to 
itself." 

It  is  well,  also,  to  keep  in  mind  the 
thought  expressed  by  Emerson  : 

"  The  life  of  man  is  a  self -evolving  circle, 
which,  from  a  ring  imperceptibly  small,  rushes 
on  all  sides  outwards  to  new  and  larger  circles, 
and  that  without  end.  The  extent  to  which 
this  generation  of  circles,  wheel  without  wheel, 
will  go,  depends  on  the  force  .or  truth  of  the 


1 6  Mind  Over  Body 

soul.  For  it  is  the  inert  effort  of  each  thought, 
having  formed  itself  into  a  circular  wave  of 
circumstance  —  as  for  instance,  an  empire, 
rules  of  an  art,  a  local  usage,  a  religious  rite 
—  to  heap  itself  on  that  ridge  and  to  solidify 
and  hem  in  the  life.  But  if  the  soul  is  quick 
and  strong,  it  bursts  over  that  boundary  on 
all  sides  and  expands  another  orbit  on  the 
great  deep,  which  also  runs  up  into  a  high 
wave  with  attempt  again  to  stop  and  to  bind. 
But  the  strong  soul  refuses  to  be  imprisoned ; 
in  its  first  and  narrowest  pulses  it  already 
tends  outward  with  a  vast  force  and  to  im- 
mense and  innumerable  expansions." 


Mind  Over  Body  17 


II 

"  Day  has  ever  to  dethrone  the  night  anew." 

—  Richard  Wagner. 

Denver,  Colo., 

Dear  Friend: 

Although  our  relations  have  been  less 
intimate  since  the  separation  of  our  paths 
five  years  ago  —  yours  for  college,  mine  for 
the  great  West  —  the  occasional  visits  that 
I  have  had  from  our  old  friend  and  school- 
mate,   ,  have  kept  me  in  touch  with 

you ;  so  that  I  have  known  of  your  religious 
transition  from  orthodoxy  to  agnosticism,  and 
of  the  mental  pain  you  endured  when  first 
you  broke  the  chains  of  your  early  ecclesias- 
tical education.  My  own  experience  has  been 
similar. 

When  your  letters  began  to  pour  in  upon 
me,  I  almost  yielded  to  your  arguments ; 
partly  because  of  my  notion  of  your  mental 
superiority  —  conscious  as  I  was  of  the  advan- 
tages of  your  college  education,  which  I  had 
been   denied ;  —  partly  because   of   my  own 


1 8  Mind  Over  Body 

unpreparedness.  But  it  was  probably  the 
latter  that  chiefly  caused  me  to  hesitate. 

I  had  read  Science  and  Health.  But, 
while  you,  because  of  your  earlier  familiarity 
with  philosophy  and  metaphysical  lines  of 
thought,  may  easily  have  understood  it,  to 
me  it  was  so  "  stubbornly  expansive  and 
elusive "  —  (this  expression  I  found  in  a  re- 
view of  Professor  Henry  James'  recent  book, 
Pragmatism,  and  I  liked  it)  —  that  I  con- 
cluded that  it  was  beyond  my  comprehen- 
sion ;  and  I  think  that  the  vast  majority  of 
Christian  Science  devotees  have  this  same 
experience.  Many  "  believe,  because  they 
cannot  understand  "  ;  many  "  believe  in  order 
that  they  may  understand."     Is  it  not  so  ? 

Another  reason  for  my  tardiness  in  writing 
to  you  was  the  inevitable  unwillingness  one 
has  to  disturb  in  a  friend,  even  were  one  able, 
a  state  of  mind  that  seems  to  result  for  him 
in  spiritual  content.  And,  because  of  this 
latter  reason,  I  doubt  if  I  should,  even  now, 
break  my  silence,  but  for  the  fact  that  it  has 
reached    me   indirectly   that    you   have   said 


Mind  Over  Body  19 

that  I  am  a  coward,  and  dishonest ;  meaning, 
of  course,  that  you  are  satisfied  that  your 
letters  to  me,  and  my  re-reading  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Science  and  Health  (which  re-reading 
I  promised  you)  have  resulted  in  my  con- 
viction that  Christian  Science  is  the  truth, 
but  that  I  lack  the  courage  to  acknowledge 
the  fact  of  my  conviction. 

Knowing  this  manifestation  of  proselyting 
zeal  on  your  part  to  be  a  violation  of  the 
spirit  of  your  philosophy,  and  recognizing 
the  hurt  that  I  experienced,  because  of  your 
charge,  to  be  an  injury  to  my  self-love;  I 
should  still  have  refrained  from  replying,  but 
that  the  self-complacency  you  manifest  is  but 
too  frequently  exhibited  by  converts  to  any 
new  idea.  I  wish  to  make  —  by  my  act 
of  writing  to  you  —  a  protest  against  intol- 
erance. 

I  commend  to  your  attention  an  utterance 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  in  The  Independent  (Nov.  22, 
1906):  — 

I  love  the  prosperity  of  Zion,  be  it  promoted 
by  Catholic,  by   Protestant,  or  by   Christian 


20  Mind  Over  Body 

Scientist.  .  .  I  would  no  more  quarrel 
with  a  man  because  of  his  religion,  than  I 
would  because  of  his  art.  ...  It  is  of  com- 
paratively little  importance  what  a  man  thinks 
or  believes  he  knows  ;  the  good  that  a  man 
does  is  the  one  thing  needful,  and  the  sole 
proof  of  his  Tightness. 

But,  as  this  is  likely  to  be  interpreted  by 
the  Christian  Science  devotee  to  suit  himself, 
I  like  still  better  —  because  capable  of  but 
one  construction  —  the  equally  tolerant  utter- 
ance of  the  president  of  a  literary  society  in 
one  of  our  large  cities,  himself  a  Christian 
Scientist,  in  introducing  four  men  who  were 
to  read  papers  on  religion  from  different 
points  of   view :  — 

"  Except  in  cases  where  self-interest  disturbs 
the  equilibrium  of  a  man's  judgment,  it  is  hard 
to  understand  how  one  of  ordinary  intelligence 
can  express  himself  intolerantly  of  the  relig- 
ious beliefs  of  another  when  these  are  honestly 
held  and  uprightly  lived. 

"  If  I  condemn  you  for  such  beliefs,  I  say  to 
you  practically  this  :  *  Your  mental  and  moral 
developments  are  very  immature  as  compared 
with  mine  ;  your  intelligence  is  less  than  mine  ; 
your  capacity  smaller ;  your  fiber  coarser  ;  and 
your  aims  lower.     It  is  your  evident  and  un- 


Mind  Over  Body  21 

questionable  duty  to  recognize  my  superior 
judgment  regarding  your  ideals  and  associa- 
tions.' " 

Because  of  phenomena  that  follow  the  ap- 
plication of  the  Christian  Science  therapeu- 
tic formula,  you  insist  that  these  prove  the 
truth  of  your  philosophy.  But  the  post  hoc, 
ergo  propter  hoc  argument  is  one  of  the  most 
dangerous  fallacies  known  to  logic,  and  one 
that  you  will  not  permit  for  a  moment  in  the 
consideration  of  any  philosophy  but  Christian 
Science,  or  of  any  system  of  therapeutics 
but  your  own. 

A  retrospect  of  any  one's  life  will  bring  to 
memory  idol  after  idol  which  one  has  built  to 
one's  self,  most  of  which  one  has  seen  broken 
because  based  upon  untenable  foundations  or 
carried  to  illogical  superstructures. 

In  our  earliest  childhood  we  unquestion- 
ingly  accept  as  true  —  because  of  reliance 
upon  the  statement  of  those  in  whom  our 
confidence  is  placed  —  the  story  of  the  reality 
of  Santa  Claus.  And  our  faith  in  the  truth 
of  the  story  is  but  confirmed  by  the  corrobo- 


22  Mind  Over  Body 

rating  evidence  of  the  "  gifts "  we  discover 
on  Christmas  morning.  As  with  the  dis- 
pelling of  delusions  of  our  after  life,  the  shat- 
tering of  this  idol  of  infancy  is  a  shock.  But, 
for  the  time,  the  belief  in  the  reality  of  Santa 
Claus  was,  for  us,  truth. 

So  with  the  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
vicarious  atonement  of  Christ,  which  I  men- 
tioned in  my  first  letter.  A  man  who  has 
sunk  to  the  lowest  depths  of  degradation 
happens  upon  a  band  of  the  Salvation  Army, 
and  listens  for  a  while  to  their  talk  about 
"  Christ  dying  that  he  might  take  upon  him- 
self our  sins;  that  to  believe  thus  is  to  be 
cleansed  from  sin  and  to  be  born  anew,  and 
so  forth."  So  impressed  is  he  that  there 
comes  over  him  a  feeling  of  happiness  and 
peace  unknown  to  him  before.  Thus  is 
demonstrated  the  truth  of  the  theory  of  a 
vicarious  atonement  for  sin ;  and  for  him 
henceforth,  as  for  all  others  who  believe  thus, 
this  is  truth. 

But  the  Christian  Scientist,  rejecting  this 
interpretation    of    the    purpose    and    conse- 


Mind  Over  Body  23 

quence  of  the  death  of  Christ  —  as  do  thou- 
sands of  others  now  —  says  to  the  theologian, 
"the  demonstration  which  you  claim  to  be 
because  of  your  philosophy,  and  to  be  the 
proof  of  its  truth,  requires  —  for  me  at  least 
—  some  other  explanation.  Your  philosophy 
must  stand  on  its  merits  ;  its  truth  is  not 
proven  —  for  me  —  by  the  alleged  demon- 
stration. My  cure  for  sin  is  the  denial  of 
the  reality  of  evil." 

And,  as  with  sin,  similarly  with  sickness. 
An  Indian  is  sick  and  calls  upon  the  "  medi- 
cine-man "  of  the  tribe  for  relief.  The  latter 
responds  with  incantations  and  beating  of 
tomtoms.  Should  the  patient  recover,  the 
Indians'  traditional  philosophy  is  sustained ; 
namely,  that  through  inherent  value  in  noise 
and  unintelligible  incantations,  the  Great 
Spirit  has  exorcised  the  evil  spirit  that  had 
possessed  the  patient.  And,  for  them,  this 
is  truth. 

As  to  results  that  have  followed  the  ap- 
plication of  theories  of  the  mental  scientist, 
the  faith  healer,  the  hypnotist,  the  mesmer- 


24  Mind  Over  Body 

ist,  the  Indian  medicine-man ;  that  have 
accompanied  pilgrimages  to  Holy  Hills,  to 
holy  wells,  shrines,  relics,  etc.,  etc.,  the 
Christian  Scientist  will  deny  that  in  them 
is  proof  of  the  soundness  of  any  proposed 
theory.  But  he  will  not  permit  a  similar 
liberty  as  to  his  philosophy  and  the  phe- 
nomena that  follow  its  application. 

But,  from  the  fact  that  similar  results  do 
follow  preceding  events  —  the  latter  in  them- 
selves apparently  dissimilar  —  am  I  not  justi- 
fied in  insisting  that  you  consider  separately 
your  philosophy  and  its  relation  to  the  phe- 
nomena that  are  connected  with  it ;  and  that 
if  the  former  be  found  to  be  unsound  —  or 
if  it  even  develop  that  there  is  valid  ground 
for  difference  of  opinion  —  you  entertain  a 
proffered  explanation  of  the  latter,  even 
should  it  differ  from  your  own  ? 

For  me,  the  achievement  of  physical  heal- 
ing, through  mental  instrumentalities,  demon- 
strates, not  any  of  the  special  explanations 
that  have  been  advanced,  but  merely  "  the 
presence  of  a  poiver  adequate  to  the  effect" 


Mind  Over  Body  25 


III 

"  There  shall  never  be  one  lost  Good  ! 
What  was,  shall  live  as  before." 

— Browning. 

Denver,  Colo., 

My  dear : 

That  most  beautiful  character,  the  bishop, 

in  Les  Mis er able s,  is  described  by  Hugo  as 

follows :  — 

"Love  one  another:  he  declared  that  to  be 
complete ;  he  desired  nothing  more,  and  it 
was  his  whole  doctrine.  When  one  day  it  was 
said  to  him,  '  Your  "  love  one  another  "  is  a 
stupidity,'  he  replied  without  discussion,  *  if 
it  be  a  stupidity,  the  soul  ought  to  shut  itself 
up  in  it,  like  the  pearl  in  an  oyster.'  And 
he  shut  himself  up  in  it,  he  lived  in  it,  he  was 
satisfied  absolutely  with  it ;  laying  aside  the 
mysterious  questions  which  attract  and  which 
dishearten;  the  unfathomable  depths  of  ab- 
straction, the  precipices  of  metaphysics  —  all 
those  profundities,  to  the  apostle  converging 
upon  God,  to  the  atheist  upon  annihilation  ; 
destiny,  good  and  evil,  the  war  of  being 
against  being,  the  conscience  of  man,  the 
thought-like  dreams  of  the  animal,  the  trans- 
formation of  death,  the  recapitulation  of  exist- 


26  Mind  Over  Body 

ences  contained  in  the  tomb,  the  incompre- 
hensible engrafting  of  successive  affections 
on  the  enduring  me ;  the  essence,  the  sub- 
stance, the  nothing,  and  the  something,  the 
soul,  nature,  liberty,  necessity ;  difficult  prob- 
lems, sinister  depths,  toward  which  are  drawn 
the  gigantic  archangels  of  the  human  race." 

I  feel  that,  as  Emerson  says  :  — 

"  No  man  need  be  perplexed  in  his  specula- 
tions. Let  him  do  and  say  what  strictly  be- 
longs to  him,  and  though  very  ignorant  of  books, 
his  nature  shall  not  yield  him  any  intellectual 
obstructions  and  doubt.  Our  young  people  are 
diseased  with  the  theological  problems  of  origi- 
nal sin,  origin  of  evil,  predestination,  the  char- 
acter of  the  universe,  and  the  like.  These 
never  presented  a  practical  difficulty  to  any 
man  —  never  darkened  any  man's  road  who 
did  not  go  out  of  his  way  to  seek  them. 
These  are  the  soul's  mumps  and  measles  and 
whooping-cough,  and  those  who  have  not 
caught  them  cannot  describe  their  health  or 
prescribe  their  cure.  A  simple  mind  will  not 
know  these  enemies." 

I  believe  in  the  absolute  and  universal 
dominion  of  Good.  You  say  that  you,  also, 
do.  Why  then  not  act  as  though  we  so  be- 
lieve, and  not  make  it  a  mere  statement  of 
the  lips,  to  be  contradicted  by  our  actions,  or 


Mind  Over  Body  2J 

confused  in  our  thought  by  questions  com- 
paratively inconsequential,  such  as  the  non- 
existence of  evil,  the  character  of  the  "  tran- 
sition, called  death"  (Mrs.  Eddy's  Unity  of 
Good,  p.  3),  the  nature  of  the  phenomenal 
universe,  and  so  forth  ? 

Do  not  reiterated  and  well-nigh  inter- 
minable disquisitions  as  to  evil,  its  origin,  its 
reality,  the  responsibility  for  it,  serve  but  to 
divert  our  minds  from,  and  tend  to  obscure, 
the  greater  question,  the  reign  of  Good  ? 
Indeed,  do  they  not  tend  to  engender  a 
morbid  interest  in  evil,  as  advertisements 
of  patent  medicines  tend  to  produce  dis- 
ease ?  Do  subtle  attempts  to  discrimi- 
nate between  a  theological  "  devil  "  —  (as 
a  positive  force  for  evil)  —  and  "  mortal 
mind"  —  (which  is  said  not  to  be,  and  there- 
fore a  negation)  —  have  such  a  practical  value 
in  our  daily  lives  that  we  must  give  to  them 
so  much  thought?  If  I  have  to  decide  for 
myself  as  to  an  action,  I  have  no  alternative ; 
one  way  is  right,  the  other  way  is  not  right. 
This  latter  negation  will,  for  my  purpose,  be 


28  Mind  Over  Body 

more  effective  than  to  put  it  into  the  positive 
form  of  a  declaration,  "  Evil  is  unreal."  If 
one  has  sinned,  the  impulse  which  will  lead 
him  to  seek  a  prevention  of  the  recurrence  of 
the  sinful  act,  is  the  only  really  important 
factor.  The  form  into  which  his  habit  of 
thought  shapes  this  impulse  —  whether  of 
prayer,  or  the  denial  of  the  reality  of  evil,  or 
an  earnest  resolution,  or  penances  —  is  of 
very  little  consequence  comparatively.  The 
impulse,  God  -  implanted,  is  spiritual,  and  in 
itself  opens  possibilities  for  the  regenerating 
influence  of  the  spiritual  forces. 

And,  similarly  —  for  me  —  as  to  "matter," 
so-called ;  it  is  enough  to  believe  that  though 
"  man  can  never  know  what  it  is,  in  itself  "  — 
any  more  than  he  can  know  what  mind  is  — 
"this  need  not  deter  him  from  making  it  a 
feature  of  his  philosophy,  if  he  go  no  further 
in  his  ideas  of  the  nature  of  this  appearance 
of  substance  in  the  objects  about  him  than 
is  involved  in  the  office  they  fill  in  his  experi- 
ence." 

With  Browning, — 


Mind  Over  Body  29 

"  My  own  hope  is,  a  sun  will  pierce 

The  thickest  cloud  earth  ever  stretched ; 
That  after  Last,  returns  the  First, 

Though  a  wide  compass  round  be  fetched ; 
That  what  began  best,  can't  end  worst, 
Nor  what  God  blessed  once,  prove  accurst." 

But  all  this  will  not  satisfy  you.  You  have 
"  demonstrations  "  to  be  explained  ;  demon- 
strations that  prove  —  for  you  —  that  your 
"  soul's  mumps  and  measles  and  whooping- 
cough  "  are  things  to  be  retained  in  your 
soul's  life.  So  I  suppose  I  must,  though 
reluctantly,  put  into  some  kind  of  form  my 
notions  concerning  them. 


30  Mind  Over  Body 


IV 


..."  Finds   tongues  in    trees,  books   in   the    running 
brooks,  sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything." 

—  Shakespeare. 


Denver,  Colo., 
Dear : 


Notwithstanding  that  I  believe  in  the  abso- 
lute dominion  of  Good  —  as  you  say  you  do  ; 
notwithstanding  that  I  believe  Love  to  be 
the  only  constructive  force  in  the  universe  — 
as  you  say  you  do ;  notwithstanding  that  I 
believe  —  with  Mrs.  Eddy  —  that  "the  only 
realities  are  Infinite  Mind  and  its  infinite 
manifestations";  although  I  believe  thus  — 
and  though  I  repudiate  the  materialistic  con- 
cept of  physical  phenomena  —  I  am  not  a 
Christian  Scientist. 

Says  one  of  the  thinkers  of  to-day  :  — 

"  From  the  fact  of  consciousness  man  learns 
that  he  is  alive,  and  hence  that  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  life.  From  his  perception  of  ob- 
jects other  than  himself  he  receives  the  idea 
that  there  is  something  outside  him  which  he 


Mind  Over  Body  31 

thinks  of  as  being  made  of  a  substance  that 
he  denominates  '  matter.' 

"  Of  these  two  things  —  life  and  matter  — 
the  existence  of  the  first  is  the  logical  neces- 
sity of  the  mere  fact  of  consciousness ;  it  is 
the  supreme  certainty  of  knowledge  involved 
in  the  very  event  itself  ;  it  is  the  one  thing 
man  is  sure  of.  [Mrs.  Eddy  declares  her 
certainty  of  her  own  existence.]  The  sec- 
ond, this  appearance  of  something  we  call 
matter,  is  a  subject  for  conjecture  and  spec- 
ulation. To  this  apparent  something,  whose 
very  existence  must  ever  at  best  be  only  an 
inference  from  certain  features  of  his  con- 
sciousness, man  gratuitously  assigns  a  sub- 
stance, and  ignores  the  fact  that  his  con- 
sciousness of  the  object  is  the  one  and  only 
thing  about  it  that  he  can  really  know." 

What  do  we  really  know  of  "  matter "  — 
so-called  —  even  through  the  physical  senses  ? 
Pick  up  a  stone  —  what  do  we  know  about  it  ? 
We  say  that  it  is  rigid  ;  that  it  has  weight ; 
that  it  is  gray,  red,  or  brown ;  and  so  forth. 
What  are  rigidity,  weight,  color  ?  Color,  the 
natural  scientist  tells  us,  is  vibration  of  light ; 
and  light,  heat,  and  electricity,  he  tells  us,  are 
the  same  thing  —  that  is,  force.  Weight  is 
an  expression  of  gravitation  —  that  is,  force. 


32  Mind  Over  Body 

Rigidity  is  an  expression  of  cohesion  —  that 
is,  force.  In  short,  there  is  no  appeal  the 
stone  can  make  to  any  of  the  senses  that  we 
shall  not  discover,  upon  examination,  to  be 
a  manifestation  of  force.  Mrs.  Eddy  says 
rightly,  "  We  tread  on  forces." 

But,  it  will  be  said,  force  cannot  exist  of 
itself ;  it  must  come  from  something,  and 
that  something  is  "  matter."  We  may  readily 
agree  that  force  cannot  exist  of  itself,  but  we 
should  require  some  satisfactory  reason  why 
we  should  credit  it  to  matter ;  and  this 
reason  —  since  it  is  the  natural  scientist  who 
seeks  to  place  in  matter  itself  the  origination 
of  force  —  must  have  some  sort  of  "  scien- 
tific "  basis.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  perfectly  right 
when  she  says,  "  mere  opinion  is  valueless." 

By  eliminating  from  our  thoughts  the 
atomic,  self-existent,  self-perpetuating  notion 
of  the  objective  universe  —  and  with  it,  once 
and  for  all,  the  correlated  term  "  matter  " ; 
blotting  the  latter  forever  from  our  vocabu- 
lary ;  —  and  instead,  always  keeping  in  mind 
Mrs.  Eddy's  interpretation  of  the  universe  as 


Mind  Over  Body  33 

"  God's  spiritual   concept,"  perhaps  we  may 
come  to  find,  as  Michael  Angelo  wrote,  that 

"  All  the  lovely  things  we  find  on  earth 
Resemble,  for  the  soul  that  rightly  sees, 
That  source  of  bliss  divine  which  gave  us  birth, 
Nor  have  we  first  fruits  or  remembrance  of  heaven 
elsewhere." 

For  you,  it  may  be  satisfactory  to  simply 
affirm  the  physical  senses  and  their  percep- 
tions to  be  products  of  "  mortal  mind  "  — 
unreal  —  evil ;  and  then  to  refer  for  proof  to 
what  you  call  your  "demonstration."  But  I 
have  in  mind  an  explanation,  differing  from 
yours,  of  the  phenomena  that  follow  the  ap- 
plication of  your  philosophy.  And,  also,  it  is 
through  the  testimony  of  the  physical  senses, 
aided  by  reason  —  as  in  my  consideration  of 
the  stone  —  that  I  raise  the  doubt  as  to  the 
substantiality  of  the  objective  universe. 

The  differences  between  your  conclusions 
and  mine  are,  I  think,  because  of  the  extreme 
to  which  Christian  Scientist  devotees  carry 
their  interpretation  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  "man  is 
spiritual,  he  is  not  material."  Our  differ- 
ences  will   undoubtedly  be  found  to   center 


34  Mind  Over  Body 

around  the  answer  to  the  inquiry  as  to  the 
validity  of  considering  man  as  having  three 
planes  of  conscious  existence  —  spiritual, 
mental,  physical  —  and  without  limiting  God. 
To  satisfy  you,  it  seems  necessary  to  ration- 
ally account  for  the  legitimacy  of  the  finite, 
while  maintaining  faith  in  the  Infinite. 

Mrs.  Eddy  affirms  Infinite  Mind  as  a 
postulate,  and  claims  that  the  correctness 
of  her  premise,  and  of  her  logic,  is  proven 
by  the  "  demonstration."  (Remember,  I  in- 
tend to  consider,  later,  the  connection  be- 
tween the  demonstration  and  the  philosophy.) 

She  frequently  admonishes  her  readers  to 
" understand  the  Infinite,"  to  "get  some 
proper  notion  of  the  Infinite."  In  an  at- 
tempt to  examine  the  notion  of  infinity,  in 
such  wise  as  may  be  possible,  let  us  consider 
"  space,"  and  by  the  only  method  of  which  I 
can  conceive. 

Two  objects  are  observed,  as  two  hills ; 
and  a  certain  relation  which  is  called  "dis- 
tance" is  perceived  to  exist  between  them. 
Another   hill,    perhaps   much   farther   away, 


Mind  Over  Body  35 

maintains  a  similar  sort  of  relation  to  the 
others  —  varying  only  in  degree.  With  this 
much  of  knowledge  acquired  by  observation 
(that  is,  by  means  of  sensation  and  of  ideas 
derived  therefrom ;  also  through  perception 
of  the  mental  processes  necessarily  involved), 
the  imagination  may  carry  the  consideration 
to  a  still  more  remote  point  —  perhaps  to  a 
star;  and  it  appears  perfectly  clear  that  the 
same  sort  of  relation  still  obtains,  that  of  dis- 
tance. The  same  thought  extended  to  the 
farthermost  star  reveals  but  an  extension  of 
distance.  The  mind  then  inquires  as  to 
what  is,  or  may  be,  beyond  the  most  distant 
star,  and  can  conjecture  nothing  but  never- 
ending  distance.  This  distance,  extending  in 
all  directions,  is  called  "  space."  Of  it  the 
mind  can  conceive  no  limit.  So  that  the 
notion  conveyed  by  the  word  "space"  in- 
cludes not  only  all  the  space  of  which  we 
know,  and  all  of  which  we  can  conceive,  but 
also  all  of  which  we  can  have  no  conception. 
To  the  notion  of  its  illimitability  we  give  the 
word  "infinite."    Mrs.  Eddy  recommends  that 


36  Mind  Over  Body 

we    "master    the   infinite   idea."     No  phase 
of    the  infinite  idea  can  be  mastered. 

As  with  space,  so  with  duration.  The  latter 
is,  so  far  as  this  consideration  is  concerned, 
of  the  same  nature  as  distance,  in  that  it  is 
discovered  to  be  a  relation  existing  between 
two  or  more  things  other  than  itself,  which 
relation  is  realized  by  the  mind  from  an  ex- 
amination of  those  other  things.  That  is, 
one  event  follows  —  or  comes  after  —  an- 
other, and  then  another  event  follows,  and 
yet  another.  From  the  apprehension  or 
mental  notice  that  we  take  of  this  sequence 
of  events,  we  realize  a  relation  we  call  dura- 
tion. If,  in  imagination,  we  ask  ourselves  if 
there  was  duration  before  the  first  of  all 
events,  we  cannot  with  certainty  answer  No. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  look  into  the  most 
distant  future  that  is  comprehensible  to  us, 
and  ask  ourselves  if  duration  will  continue 
after  the  last  of  all  events,  we  cannot  with 
certainty  answer  No.  This  notion  of  dura- 
tion is  called  "  time,"  and  to  that  character- 
istic that  shows  to  us  our  inability  to  assign 


Mind  Over  Body  37 

a  beginning  or  an  ending,  we  give  the  name 
"infinite,"  an  expression  of  our  inability  to 
even  apprehend. 

The  notion  of  time  comes  to  man  from  the 
observation  of  certain  results  of  his  own  intel- 
lectual processes.  The  notice  of  space  comes 
to  him  from  his  observation  of  the  relation 
of  certain  perceptions  received  through  the 
sense  of  touch. 

But  although  the  notion  of  infinity  invites, 
allures,  entrances  every  imaginative  soul,  the 
attempt  to  "master"  or  to  "get  some  proper 
sense  of  "  infinity,  even  though  it  be  merely 
on  the  plane  of  space  and  time,  forces  the 
intellectual  powers  of  man  back  upon  them- 
selves, numbed  by  the  effort  to  master  prob- 
lems that  stagger  both  the  understanding 
and  the  reason,  and  that  bring  the  soul  to 
humble  adoration  and  reverent  worship. 

While  we  cannot  affirm  —  as  a  matter  of 
knowledge,  nor  yet  of  the  imagination  —  in- 
finite space  or  infinite  time,  we  can  and  do 
admit  of  belief  in  both.  This  we  can  and 
do  formulate ;  and  thereby  assert  a  belief  in 


38  Mind  Over  Body 

a  something  that  is  wholly  incomprehensible. 
We  may,  and  do,  know  something  of  space  and 
duration,  but  it  is  parts  of  these  of  which  we 
have  knowledge,  and  it  is  of  still  larger  parts 
that  we  have  comprehension ;  but  of  infinite 
space  and  of  infinite  time  we  cannot  even 
conceive ;  while  we  do  believe,  and  cannot 
avoid  believing,  that  each  is  without  begin- 
ning and  without  end.  Thus  we  learn  that 
it  is  the  office  of  faith  to  carry  us  into  realms 
that  are  beyond  the  reach  of  knowledge,  or 
of  comprehension,  or  even  of  conception.  It 
is  by  faith  alone  that  we  feel  the  idea  of 
infinity.  This  faith  may  become  so  strong 
and  so  satisfying  as  almost  to  justify  its  pos- 
sessor in  calling  it  knowledge. 

Conceding  that  we  cannot  prove  any  sub- 
stantiality to  "matter,"  so-called  ;  and  willing 
to  agree  with  Mrs.  Eddy  that  the  universe  is 
"  God's  spiritual  concept "  and  that  the  so- 
called  "laws  of  matter"  are,  instead,  "laws 
of  mind  "  ;  it  seems,  as  I  have  said,  necessary 
to  account  rationally  for  the  legitimacy  of  the 
finite  while  maintaining  faith  in  the  infinite. 


Mind  Over  Body  39 

Mrs.  Eddy  appears  to  consider  this  an  impos- 
sible task.  But  when  we  remember  that  the 
notions  of  infinite  time  and  of  infinite  space 
are  perhaps  less  vague  than  is  the  notion  of 
Infinite  Mind  ;  and  when  we  remember  that 
the  notion  of  an  hour,  or  of  a  month,  or  of 
any  other  period  of  time,  in  no  way  detracts 
from  the  belief  in  infinite  time,  or  eternity, 
and  not  only  does  not  detract,  but  is  in  fact 
a  necessary  precedent  of  such  belief ;  and 
when  we  remember  that  the  belief  in  infinite 
space  is  in  no  way  impaired  by  the  recogni- 
tion of  bodies  occupying  space,  but  that  such 
recognition  is  the  condition  of  the  notion  of 
finite  space,  which  is,  in  turn,  the  necessary 
precedent  of  the  formation  of  a  belief  in 
infinite  space;  when  we  remember  these 
facts,  perhaps  we  at  least  approach  the  solu- 
tion of  the  difficulty. 

I  hear  you  say,  "The  real  man  is  spirit, 
and  spirit  knows  not  time  or  space,  and  con- 
sequently the  foregoing  is  without  value." 
What  you  say  is  true  if  one  repudiates,  as 
you  do,  the  physical.     It  is  true  that  man's 


40  Mind  Over  Body 

real  life,  his  thinking,  is  internal ;  but  his 
thought  sometimes  has  regard  for  things  ex- 
ternal. His  thought,  in  its  entirety,  must 
involve  the  notion  of  time ;  the  external 
things  that  he  must  contemplate  force  his 
mind  to  include  the  notion  of  space.  It 
follows  that  we  cannot  think  at  all,  save  in 
the  conditions  of  the  physical.  Mrs.  Eddy 
substantiates  this  assertion  when  she  abruptly 
defines  Infinite  Spirit  in  terms  of  the  physical, 
"God  occupies  all  space." 

Why  does  she  use  that  expression  ?  To 
be  understood,  you  say  ?  That's  just  it !  — 
an  appeal  to  the  intellect,  one  of  the  phases 
of  man's  consciousness  !  Things  spiritual  are 
more  easily  —  aye,  are  solely  —  apprehended 
in  terms  of  the  physical.  There  is  no  other 
language  for  them.  And  but  for  her 
claim  of  repudiation  of  the  physical,  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  not  found  it  so  "  difficult  to  find 
language,"  as  she  herself  says,  "in  which 
to  clothe  metaphysical  thought."  For,  as 
Seneca  says,  "The  language  of  truth  is 
simple." 


Mind  Over  Body  41 

Time  and  space  are  circumstances,  not 
of  spirit,  God,  but  of  His  manifestations. 
These  appearances  of  things  —  that  is,  space 
and  time,  and  the  phenomena  they  contain  — 
are  incidents  of  the  revelation  of  God  to 
human  consciousness.  And  —  for  me  —  they 
are  a  valid  part  of  the  whole. 

We  manifest  our  inability  to  know  the 
Infinite  First  Cause,  when,  as  our  nearest 
possible  approach  to  an  expression  of  such 
knowledge,  we  idealize  —  (in  the  Christ,  the 
Perfect  Man,  the  highest  form  of  creation) 
—  the  human  qualities  ;  and  then  look  for, 
and  find,  on  a  lower  scale  —  still  incompre- 
hensible—  these  qualities  manifested  in  all 
physical  expressions  of  the  Creator. 


42  Mind  Over  Body 


V 

"  It  is  following  the  stars  we  have  that  will  lead  to  the 
day  to  be."  —  Cope. 

Denver,  Colo., 

My  dear : 

The  following  is  from  the  Christian  Science 

Sentinel  of  November  6,  1902  :  — 

" '  Identity  is  the  reflection  of  Spirit ' 
{Science  and  Health,  p.  477).  But  what 
is  it  that  reflects  ?  When  I  experience  a 
desire  to  turn  from  evil,  to  turn  toward  good 
in  any  degree  or  in  any  direction,  that  desire 
is  certainly  a  reflection  of  Spirit,  God;  but 
what  is  the  '  I '  that  experiences  ? 

"  There  is  no  such  existence.  This  very 
sense  or  supposition  of  an  '  I '  to  experience 
a  desire,  is  the  false  sense  of  personality,  the 
cloud  that  seems  to  hide  the  real  identity. " 

And,  from  Science  and  Health  (p.  339) :  — 

ft  Since  God  is  All,  there  is  no  room  for 
His  opposite." 

In  a  letter  to  me,  one  of  the  clearest 
theological  thinkers  of  to-day  analyzes  in  an 
extremely  interesting  manner  the  foregoing 
propositions,  as  follows  :  — 


Mind  Over  Body  43 

"  A  '  sense  or  supposition,'  but  no  one  to  be 
the  subject  of  this  sense  or  supposition  !  And 
a  reality  hidden  by  a  cloud  that  has  no  ex- 
istence ;  —  and  only  '  seems  '  to  be  hidden  ! 

"Think  a  moment.  Begin  at  the  begin- 
ning ;  let  us  lay  a  foundation  of  possible 
philosophic  concept  by  the  affirmation  of  a 
primal  thing  of  which  we  can  feel  sure. 
Let  us  lay  down  a  fundamental  postulate 
that  we  can  feel  that  we  know.  Is  there 
any  conception  of  which  each  can  say  :  '  This 
I  know ;  not  from  authority,  nor  from  tes- 
timony, but  from  the  inherent  nature  of 
the  thing  itself,  I  know  it '  ?  Let  us  lay 
down  some  fundamental  principle  of  rational 
thought  as  a  basis  for  logical  deduction.  For 
all  logical  thought  must  be  founded  upon 
some  self-evident  primitive  postulate. 

"  Is  there  any  affirmation  of  which  we  can 
say,  '  I  know  '  ?  There  is  indeed !  For  we 
go  to  the  very  absoluteness  of  certainty 
when  we  declare  that  the  fact  of  conscious- 
ness is  the  one  absolute  knowledge  of  man. 
Understand,  I  do  not  say  that  we  can  trust 
what  consciousness  seems  to  say  to  us ;  for 
we  cannot.  Nor  do  I  say  that  our  conclu- 
sions drawn  from  consciousness  are  reliable. 
They  are  not.  We  may  be  entirely  mistaken 
concerning  the  nature  of  the  things  that  con- 
sciousness seems  to  reveal  to  us.  We  may 
misunderstand  the  source  of  our  conscious- 
ness, and  its  meaning.  But  that  we  are  — 
as  a  fact  —  conscious,  cannot  be  denied. 


44  Mind  Over  Body 

"  For  the  sake  of  illustration,  bring  this 
conception  into  very  simple  experiences.  We 
seem  to  be  sitting  in  a  room.  That  is  what 
our  consciousness  tells  us.  Are  we  sure  of 
it  ?  No ;  we  may  be  deceived  about  that  — 
perhaps  we  are  dreaming.  But  whether 
dreaming  or  not,  we  think  we  are  sitting 
there.  If  not  sitting  there,  then  the  seeming 
is  the  fact  of  consciousness.  We  must  be 
conscious  at  least  of  the  seeming,  to  be  able 
to  think  of  it,  and  especially  to  speak  of  it. 
Again,  our  consciousness  tells  us  that  we  are 
ill.  Perhaps  we  are  not  ill,  notwithstanding 
that  fact  of  consciousness.  The  ailments  we 
may  seem  to  have  may  be  fictitious,  hallu- 
cinations. But  however  many  errors  there 
may  be  in  our  beliefs,  the  fact  that  we  at 
least  seem  to  be  sick  is  absolutely  unas- 
sailable. 

"This  separation  of  the  question  of  the 
fact  of  consciousness  from  that  of  reliability 
of  our  interpretation  of  that  fact,  is  of  im- 
mense moment  in  logical  thinking ;  for  the 
recognition  of  the  fact  enables  us  to  under- 
stand both  how  to  think  of  creation,  and 
the  office  of  '  mortal  mind.'  Agreeing  with 
Christian  Scientists  that  man  is  in  reality  a 
'  thought  of  God,'  we  hold  that  this  thought, 
in  order  to  realize  its  individual  identity,  must 
be  so  projected  from  its  Source  as  to  at  least 
seem  to  have  an  independent  self-existence. 
That  seeming — which  I  have  just  called  the 
fact  of    consciousness  —  is  man  as  we  view 


Mind  Over  Body  45 

him  ;  it  is  man  as  he  is  on  earth.  It  is  what 
Christian  Scientists  call  ■  mortal  mind.' 

"In  the  doctrine  of  creation  as  thus  set 
forth,  we  agree  with  Christian  Scientists  that 
God  is  the  Absolute,  the  Real,  and  the  Only. 
We  hold  this  so  fully  that  no  expressions  of 
Christian  Scientists  can  put  it  too  strongly. 

"Further  than  this,  we  agree  that  since 
this  is  so,  it  follows  that  man  has  no  being 
in  himself,  or  apart  from  God.  '  In  Him 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being.' 
All  the  being,  all  the  reality,  all  the  source 
of  the  consciousness  which  is  so  surely 
avouched  to  us,  is  God.  But  it  is  man's 
experience  of  this  life  —  which  experience, 
we  will  grant,  is  a  seeming  —  which  is  man 
as  we  view  him ;  is  the  man  we  call  the 
1  natural  man.' 

"  Man  thus  is  two-fold  ;  the  real,  the  divine 
man ;  and  the  seeming,  the  conscious  man. 
The  appearance  of  being  alive,  this  fact  of 
consciousness,  is  what  we  are  as  creatures  of 
God.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have, 
within  this  creature,  the  divine  man ;  the 
man  who  is  the  thought  of  God  ;  the  perfect 
man  who  is  a  veritable  Son  of  God ;  perfect 
and  unassailable  by  pain  or  sin." 

Continuing,  he  then  attempts  to  explain 
the  purposes  of  the  Infinite  Creator:  — 

"  But  why  this  two-foldedness  ?  Why 
could  not  God  bring  out  His  thoughts  into 


46  Mind  Over  Body 

immediate,  direct,  and  perfect  expressions  of 
themselves,  in  instantaneous  self-realization  ? 
And,  especially,  why  this  seeming  of  self -life  ? 
Why  should  there  be  even  a  belief  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  mortal  mind  ? 

"  The  reply  is  that  in  such  appearance  only 
could  there  exist  anything  that  is  not  God. 
Since  God  is  all  reality ;  since  there  is 
nothing  out  of  Him  that  has  being ;  creation 
cannot  consist  in  producing  another  reality, 
which  would  be  another  God;  creation  re- 
sults in  the  production  of  this  seeming.  And 
this  seeming,  to  be  a  creation  at  all,  must 
seem  to  be  what  God  is  not  —  otherwise  it 
would  be  God  and  not  a  creation.  Hence 
its  seeming  weakness  and  evil  —  for  these 
are  the  things  that  God  is  not. 

"  But  why  should  there  be  a  creation  at 
all  if  these  seemingly  dire  conditions  are  laid 
upon  it  ? 

"  Because  this  creation  is  only  a  prelimi- 
nary ;  it  is  provisional  to  a  real  creation  that 
comes  afterward ;  the  creation  in  which  man 
comes  into  the  realization  of  this  oneness 
with  God;  and,  thus,  of  his  interior  divine 
life.  This  preliminary  creation  is  absolutely 
essential  to  the  subsequent  and  real  creation, 
that  man  may  have  built  up  in  himself  a  con- 
sciousness of  seeming  self -life  —  as  a  contain- 
ing vessel  —  in  which  or  by  means  of  which 
may  be  given  him  a  subsequent  consciousness 
of  God.  Man  in  this  first  state  is  an  inver- 
sion of   God,  —  that  he  may  be  a  basis  for 


Mind  Over  Body  47 

the  later  realization  of  God  '  right  side  up.' 
This  natural  man,  'mortal  mind,'  this  seem- 
ing which  we  find  ourselves  to  be,  is  the 
scaffolding  to  the  building ;  the  mold  to  the 
casting ;  the  matrix  to  the  image.  We  now 
seem  to  be,  for  the  purpose  of  attaining  after- 
ward to  true  being ;  we  are  at  first  '  mortal 
minds '  that  we  may  be  born  again  into 
images  of  God.  Our  consciousness,  with  all 
its  illusions,  is  the  foundation  of  future  con- 
sciousness without  illusion  —  a  consciousness 
of  God." 

Do  you  find  a  satisfaction  in  asserting 
that,  in  the  foregoing,  the  notion  that  the 
Perfect  can  create  the  imperfect  —  even  for 
the  purpose  that  the  latter  may  attain  per- 
fection —  is  an  inconsistency  ?  Mrs.  Eddy 
more  than  intimates  that  it  is  an  absurdity, 
which  dilemma  she  avoids  by  postulating  the 
"  seeming,"  as  does  my  correspondent ;  but 
she  fails  even  to  attempt  to  give  a  reason 
for  this  seeming  existence  of  the  seeming. 
Does  her  method  dispose  of  it  ? 

The  foregoing  attempted  explanation  of  the 
purpose  of  the  Infinite  creation  is  the  best  that 
I  have  ever  seen,  and  justifies  the  "  natural 
man,"  "mortal  mind."     But,  since  it  may  be 


48  Mind  Over  Body 

justly  held  that  he  fails  to  explain,  does  the 
failure  not  support  my  contention  in  an 
earlier  letter  to  you,  that  we  cannot  under- 
stand the  Infinite  ?  And  we  do  not  need 
to  understand.  Nor  is  it  necessary  for  us  to 
justify  "the  natural  man,"  "mortal  mind." 
It  is  its  own  justification  —  as  a  part  of  the 
Divine  creative  plan. 

Repudiate,  as  a  thing  of  evil  —  as  do 
Christian  Scientists  —  man's  experience  on 
the  physical  plane  ?  Throw  away  and  con- 
demn the  ladder  by  which  —  and  only  by 
which  —  man  climbs  to  knowledge  of  the 
supreme  value  of  things  spiritual  as  compared 
with  all  else  ?  As  well  may  the  student  of 
higher  mathematics  deny  —  because  he  now 
has  no  occasion  to  revert  to  them  —  that 
axioms  were  the  bases  of  his  first  steps.  As 
well  may  the  finished  pianist,  able  now  to 
interpret  in  the  most  spiritual  way  a  Mozart 
or  a  Beethoven,  repudiate  —  merely  because 
forgotten  as  a  thing  of  the  past  —  the  labor 
of  his  earlier  experiences  in  perfecting  his 
mechanical  action. 


Mind  Over  Body  49 

We  cannot  know  the  "why"  of  the  In- 
finite Mind,  nor  do  we  need  to  know.  We 
may  not  understand  the  "how,"  nor  do  we 
need  to  do  so.  We  have  to  deal  only  with 
the  facts  that  we  do  know. 

As  one  of  the  greatest  thinkers  the  world 
has  known  (Swedenborg)  says:  "The  things 
which  flow  in  through  the  external  way  are 
the  sensual  things  of  the  body ;  but  they  do 
not  flow  in  of  themselves,  but  are  called  forth 
by  means  of  the  internal  man,  in  order  that 
they  may  serve  as  a  plane  for  the  celestial  and 
spiritual  things  which  inflow  from  the  divine 
through  the  internal  way." 

I  wish  to  carry  a  little  further  the  line  of 
thought  suggested  by  the  quotations  that 
precede  this  letter. 

You  look  upon  man  as  a  reflection  of  God, 
and  cite  —  as  illustrations  —  a  reflection  in  a 
mirror  and  a  ray  of  light  from  the  sun.  But 
to  my  mind  these  are  not  analogous  to  the 
relation  man  bears  to  his  Infinite  Cause. 
Man  is  more  than  a  reflection ;  he  is  an  ex- 
pression, a  manifestation;  he  has  conscious- 


50  Mind  Over  Body 

ness  —  is  conscious  of  his  own  existence,  of 
his  own  entity,  of  his  emotions,  his  intel- 
lectual and  physical  capabilities.  And  exist- 
ence is  being.     Being  must  manifest  itself. 

The  notion  of  the  individual  entity  of  the 
ego  —  even  including  its  expression  on  the 
mental  and  physical  planes  —  in  no  way  de- 
tracts, in  my  opinion,  from  the  oneness  of  the 
Absolute. 

One  quality  of  Divine  Being  we  conceive 
as  Love  —  Infinite  Love.  Love,  whether  in 
the  human,  or  in  the  Infinite,  is  unthinkable 
except  it  have  somewhat  —  other  than  itself 
—  upon  which  it  can  exercise  itself.  And 
has  the  Source  whence  it  emanated  been 
diminished  in  any  degree  by  love  that 
has  been  manifested  ?  On  the  contrary,  we 
know  that  even  in  man  the  love  impulse 
increases  with  each  accepted  opportunity  for 
its  expression.  Did  the  love  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
manifested  in  writing  "  Science  and  Health  " 
decrease,  or  increase,  her  capacity  for  loving  ? 
And  yet  this  expression  of  herself  became 
manifest  as  something  other  than  herself  — 
yet,  in  a  sense,  as  part  of  herself. 


Mind  Over  Body  51 

Do  you  claim — in  this  connection  —  that 
in  a  work  of  love  one  is  but  the  instrument 
through  which  the  Infinite  Love  works  ?  I 
agree  with  that ;  in  the  last  analysis  all  comes 
from  God.  But  the  Divine  love-impulse,  God- 
implanted  in  me,  is  there  for  me  to  heed  or 
to  pervert  as  my  God-implanted  will  decides. 
In  the  parable  of  the  talents,  he  that  hid  his 
talent  in  the  ground  chose  to  do  so,  and  no 
attempt  to  blame  "  devil  "  or  "  mortal  mind  " 
as  the  cause,  would  have  freed  him  from  his 
self-condemnation.  He  that  improved  his 
talent  chose  to  do  so,  and  in  so  doing  placed 
himself  in  accord  with  the  eternal  principles 
of  right  —  God  —  and  with  a  consequent  in- 
crease in  his  capabilities. 

We  may  think  of  the  ego,  man,  as  having 
his  anchorage  in  the  Source  whence  he  came, 
yet  a  separate  entity ;  and  that,  as  an  expres- 
sion of  Infinite  Love  and  himself  imbued 
with  love,  no  diminution  of  the  Source  is 
caused  thereby ;  necessarily  a  separate  entity, 
else  would  God  have  only  himself  to  love. 
Carrying  this  further,  why  may  we  not  think 


52  Mind  Over  Body 

of  this  individuality  of  the  ego  as  involving 
the  idea  that  man  is  in  like  manner  inher- 
ently possessed  of  other  qualities  that  we 
ascribe  to  the  Infinite  ?  —  such  as  : 

(a).  Will.  Whether  I  shall,  or  shall  not, 
do  that  which  I  know  to  be  right,  I  de- 
termine for  myself;  otherwise  I  am  an  au- 
tomaton, and  am  not  responsible  for  my  acts. 

(b).  Intellect.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  "The 
time  for  thinkers  has  come." 

(c).  Even  the  power  of  perception  through 
the  physical  senses,  by  means  of  which,  aided 
by  reason,  man  may  come  to  interpret  the 
universe  as  "  God's  spiritual  concept  "  ;  — 
all  of  these,  without  having  lessened  the  in- 
finite character  of  God,  their  Source. 


Mind  Over  Body  53 


VI 


"  To  me  the  converging  objects  of  the  universe  perpetu- 
ally flow. 
All  are  written  to  me  and  I  must  get  what  the  writing 
means."  —  Walt  Whitman. 


Denver,  Colo., 
Dear : 


I  claim  that,  in  a  philosophy  that  declares 
spirit  to  be  All  —  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
else,  in  which  sense  Mrs.  Eddy  makes  that 
declaration  —  reason  has  no  more  legitimate 
place  than  have  the  physical  senses,  since 
the  former  is  no  more  on  the  spiritual  plane 
than  are  the  latter.  And  yet,  through  her 
approving  reference  to  the  syllogism,  and  her 
appeal  to  logic  (the  science  of  methodical 
reasoning),  Mrs.  Eddy  legitimatizes  intellect, 
but  declares  the  physical  senses  and  their 
evidence  to  be  products  of  " mortal  mind"  — 
unreal  —  evil.  I  have  already  shown  what  I 
believe  to  be  the  validity  of  the  use  of  the  lat- 
ter (the  evidence  of  the  senses)  as  a  basis  for 
reaching   the   conclusion    that    the   substan- 


54  Mind  Over  Body 

tiality  of  objective  phenomena  cannot  be 
proven  ;  —  and,  at  the  same  time,  as  a  basis 
for  the  possibility  of  a  belief  in  the  reality  of 
the  incomprehensible. 

The  same  reasoning  applies  to  every  form 
of  human  life  and  consciousness.  An  image 
of  infinitude  is  in  every  possible  direction. 
Every  physical  seed,  in  its  endless  potenti- 
ality of  growth  through  the  cycles  of  the 
future  ;  and  in  its  ability  to  multiply  till  it 
fills  all  earths  —  that  is,  without  limit  —  is  an 
image  of  the  same  thing  ;  and  this  —  for 
me  —  without  restricting,  in  any  degree,  the 
Absolute. 

On  the  contrary,  as  Emerson  says,  "The 
true  doctrine  of  omnipresence  is  that  God 
reappears  with  all  His  parts  in  every  moss 
and  cobweb,"  and,  "  We  can  never  see  Chris- 
tianity from  the  catechism ;  from  the  past- 
ures, from  a  boat  on  the  pond,  from  amidst 
the  songs  of  wood-birds,  we  possibly  may." 

With  his  senses,  man  perceives  a  physical 
sun  —  (not  a  "  material  "  sun  —  we  have  re- 
pudiated the  word).     The  fact  that  to  these 


Mind  Over  Body  55 

senses  it  appeared  at  one  time  that  the 
sun  rotated  around  the  earth,  might  possibly 
—  as  Christian  Scientists  make  use  of  the 
fact  —  be  a  justification  for  the  repudiation 
of  the  testimony  of  the  senses,  except  for 
the  fact  that  it  was  these  same  senses,  aided 
by  reason,  that  finally  evolved  the  theory, 
now  accepted,  as  to  the  movements  of  the 
sun  and  the  earth  relative  to  each  other. 
Surely  the  spiritual  sense  had  no  share  in 
bringing  about  this  corrected  interpretation 
of  astronomical  phenomena. 

But  the  spiritual  sense  is  responsible  for 
the  interpretation  of  the  beneficent  warmth  of 
this  sun  as  a  manifestation  of  Infinite  Love, 
its  cause ;  and  of  the  light  of  this  sun  as  an 
expression  of  Infinite  Wisdom,  its  cause. 
But,  before  this  interpretation  was  possible, 
the  physical  senses  must  have  seen  and  felt. 

Mrs.  Eddy  speaks  of  the  rose  as  "  a  smile 
of  God."  But  this  idea  would  be  impossible 
to  one  with  no  sense  of  sight,  or  smell, 
through  which,  if  at  all,  must  be  per- 
ceived the  beauty  and   the  fragrance,  which 


56  Mind  Over  Body 

are  the  characteristics  that  give  to  the  spirit- 
ual sense  the  opportunity  that  begets  the 
thought  so  beautifully  expressed. 

The  smile  of  God  is  indeed  in  the  rose, 
but  the  love  of  God  is  made  manifest  in  no 
slighter  degree  in  the  much  less  beautiful 
root.  The  Divine  Mind  is  as  fully  revealed 
in  the  havoc  -  working  avalanche,  properly 
viewed,  as  in  the  falling  rain. 

"  The  heavens  are  telling  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork," 
but 

"  'T  is  not  in  the  high  stars  alone, 

Nor  in  the  cup  of  budding  flowers, 
Nor  the  red-breast's  mellow  tone, 

Nor  in  the  bow  that  smiles  in  showers, 
But  in  the  mud  and  scum  of  things, 
There  always,  always,  something  sings." 

I  see  fair  fields,  silvery  streams,  the  sweep 
and  curve  of  woodland  or  of  mountain  range, 
the  restless  toil  of  mighty  ocean ;  I  behold 
the  radiance  of  the  orb  of  day,  and,  when 
his  light  is  withdrawn,  the  glories  of  the 
star-strewn  vault  are  unrolled  ;  aye,  I  see  the 
marvelous   mechanism  of    the  human  body. 


Mind  Over  Body  57 

All  things  such  as  these  reveal  —  for  me  — 
the  Infinite  Love  and  Wisdom. 

"  As  wider  skies  broke  on  his  view, 
God  greatened  in  his  growing  mind ; 
Each  year  he  dreamed  his  God  anew, 
And  left  his  older  God  behind. 

"  He  saw  the  mighty  scheme  dilate, 
In  star  and  blossom,  sky  and  clod, 
And  as  the  universe  grew  great, 
He  dreamed  for  it  a  greater  God." 

What  is  it  that  we  love  in  our  fellow-man  ? 
Not  intellectual  attainments  or  potentialities  ; 
these  we  but  admire.  It  is  spiritual  qualities, 
developed  or  latent,  that  inspire  love.  But 
I  cannot  know  of  these  in  a  fellow-man  unless 
they  be  expressed.  And  this  can  only  be 
through  some  deed  of  kindness,  some  act  of 
service,  a  word,  or  a  facial  expression ;  each 
and  all  possible  of  manifestation  on  the  plane 
of  sense-life  only,  involving  the  use  of  the 
body.  And  I  must  see  the  act  or  its  conse- 
quence, or  hear  the  word,  before  I  am  able 
to  think  or  to  say  of  the  impulse,  that  it  origi- 
nated in  the  spiritual.  Effect  must  precede  a 
disposition  to  even  look  for  cause.     Whether 


58  Mind  Over  Body 

or  not  I  agree  with  Christian  Science,  I  be- 
lieve Mrs.  Eddy  to  have  been  impelled  by 
the  highest  spirituality,  manifested  finally  in 
a  book.  And  whether  or  not  this  contain 
truth,  I  must  read  it  with  my  sense  of  sight 
before  I  can  determine. 

This  idea  —  that  one  cannot  discern  the 
spiritual  qualities  in  another,  except  primarily 
through  the  physical  senses,  and  except  they 
be  manifested  on  the  physical  plane  —  I 
recently  suggested  to  a  friend,  a  Christian 
Scientist.  And  though  I  had  just  previously 
cautioned  her  that  by  "  physical  "I  did  not 
mean  "material,"  as  the  materialist  uses  the 
latter  word,  she  remarked,  "  I  don't  see  how 
you  can  call  '  evil '  good."  I  disclaimed  hav- 
ing done  so.  "  But  you  call  '  matter  '  good," 
she  insisted.  I  hadn't  been  talking  about 
matter  at  all. 

That  she  could  not  make  the  discrimina- 
tion, that  I  sought,  between  the  ideas  "phys- 
ical" and  "material,"  I  believe  to  be  due 
to  the  constant  iteration  and  reiteration  — 
in    Science    and    Health  —  of    the    words 


Mind  Over  Body  59 

" matter"  and  "material,"  and  the  less  fre- 
quent, though  indiscriminating,  use  of  the 
word  "physical";  so  that  when  either  of 
them  was  used  it  meant  to  her  nothing  but 
material  "  atoms." 

To  the  same  friend  I  once  presented 
the  idea  of  one's  inability  to  think  of  the 
rose  as  "  the  smile  of  God,"  except  it 
first  be  perceived  by  the  physical  senses. 
She  wanted  to  know  if  "  the  savage  would 
see  the  rose  as  the  smile  of  God"  —  mean- 
ing, of  course,  that  his  lack  of  spiritual  devel- 
opment would  prevent,  for  him,  such  thought. 
Granted  that  this  be  so,  it  had  no  bearing 
whatsoever  upon  my  contention.  If  you  and 
I  are  listening  to  a  Greek,  the  fact  that  you 
understand  the  Greek  language  and  that  I 
lack  that  ability  does  not  disprove  the  notion 
that  to  understand  it  one  must  first  hear  it. 


6o  Mind  Over  Body 


VII 

"  For,  what  we  call  this  life  of  man  on  earth, 
This  sequence  of  the  soul's  achievements  here, 
Being,  as  I  find  much  reason  to  conceive, 
Intended  to  be  viewed  eventually 
As  a  great  whole,  not  analyzed  to  parts, 
But  each  part  having  reference  to  all." 

—  Browning. 


Denver,  Colo., 

Dear  Friend : 

Remember,  I  am  merely  suggesting  to  you 
what  comes  to  me  —  I  offer  it  not  dogmatic- 
ally. 

You  say  "  God  is  good  and  is  All,  con- 
sequently there  can  be  no  evil."  But  I  think 
that  I  believe  this  in  a  way  fully  as  compre- 
hensive, as  absolute,  as  you  do. 

"  God 's  in  his  heaven, 
All 's  right  with  the  world." 

Evil  is  ignorance  —  (a  substitution  of  one 
negation  for  another  ? ) —  an  absence  of  knowl- 
edge—  knowledge  of  laws  that  originate  in 
the   spiritual   and   that   are   everywhere  and 


Mind  Over  Body  6.1 

always  operative  on  the  three  planes  of  man's 
life. 

God  created  man  that  He  might  have 
something  to  love,  and  without  lessening  His 
infiniteness.  He  endowed  man  with  a  will, 
with  which  to  choose  to  conform  or  to  not 
conform  to  spiritual  law,  as,  through  percep- 
tion and  experience,  he  comes  to  know  it. 
And  He  has  ordained  that  man  shall  suffer 
if  he  chooses  not  to  put  himself  in  conso- 
nance with  His  laws.  Though  man  sin,  God 
beholds  and  says,  "  It  is  good ;  he  will  come 
to  know,  through  the  consequence  of  his 
sin."  It  is  in  this  sense  that  I  look  upon 
evil  as  a  negation  ;  and  that  that  which  —  in 
isolated,  individual  separateness  —  appears  as 
evil,  disappears  as  such  when  the  whole 
scheme  is  contemplated  of  the  purpose  of 
man's  existence  in  the  flesh  —  the  develop- 
ment of  character. 

Mrs.  Eddy  expresses  this  same  notion 
when  she  says,  "  Sorrow  is  salutary,  through 
great  tribulation  we  enter  the  Kingdom,  trials 
are  the  proof  of  God's  care."     But  sorrozv  is 


62  Mind  Over  Body 

purely  a  mental  state,  and  as  negative  as 
evil.  And  "sorrow  is  salutary,"  not  evil  — 
according  to  Mrs.  Eddy  —  the  crucible  in 
which  man,  through  experience  in  his  life  on 
the  physical  plane,  comes  to  know  of  the  con- 
sequences of  the  violation  of  spiritual  law ; 
consequences  avoidable  had  he  but  known. 
In  the  Bible,  the  reproof  of  the  slothful 
servant  is  but  symbolical  of  his  remorse,  of 
his  self-condemnation  ;  the  "  well  done,  thou 
good  and  faithful  servant,"  symbolizing  the 
happiness  that  comes  from  a  consciousness 
of  harmony  with  spiritual  law. 

Muriel  Strode,  in  My  Little  Book  of 
Prayer,  says  :  — 

I  begged  to  escape  from  suffering ;  I  prayed 
to  God  to  save  my  soul  from  sin.  To-day  I 
stand  aghast  at  the  thing  I  should  have  been 
had  my  prayer  been  heard. 

It  does  seem  as  though  it  is  necessary 
for  man  to  experience  "sorrow,"  "trials," 
"  great  tribulation  "  ;  to  go  down  into  the 
depths,  before  he  can  understand  and  appre- 
ciate that 


Mind  Over  Body  63 

"  To  have  is  oft  to  lose  —  the  quaffed  cup  holds 
No  promise  of  sweet  wine.     O  fools  and  blind  — 
To  take  the  less  for  the  more,  the  passing  day 
For  an  eternity  of  triune  joy ! 
Better  long  aeons  of  pure  ecstasy 
Than  transient  moments  of  voluptuous  bliss, 
Which  burn  to  leave  dead  ashes  in  their  track." 

In  The  Ballad  of  Reading  Gaol,  Oscar 
Wilde  expresses  his  appreciation  of  this 
thought,  born  of  his  experience :  — 

"  Ah  !  happy  they  whose  hearts  can  break 

And  peace  of  pardon  win  ! 
How  else  may  man  make  straight  his  plan 

And  cleanse  his  soul  from  sin  ? 
How  else  but  through  a  broken  heart 

May  Lord  Christ  enter  in  ? " 

But  does  not  the  fact  that  only  through 
experience  do  we  come  to  know,  seem  to  in- 
dicate man's  life  on  the  physical  plane  —  with 
all  that  seems  evil  to  his  limited  vision  —  to  be 
a  part  of  the  beneficent  Divine  creative  plan, 
rather  than  a  product  of  "mortal  mind,"  with 
the  meaning  the  devotees  of  Christian  Science 
have  come  to  give  this  expression  —  a  syn- 
onym for  the  "devil"? 

There  being,  as  I  have  shown  in  my  former 
letters,   a  legitimacy  to  the  physical  in  con- 


64  Mind  Over  Body 

sidering  the  Infinite  plan,  I  cannot  avoid  a 
reasoning  similar  to  the  foregoing  when  con- 
sidering pain  and  disease,  resulting  in  the 
conclusion  that  they  are  as  valid  as  sorrow. 
As  the  latter  brings  man  to  a  recognition  of 
his  inharmony  with  God's  laws  on  the  spirit- 
ual plane,  so  the  former  —  warnings  that 
God's  laws  that  govern  on  the  physical  plane 
are  being  violated  —  are  in  that  sense  as  salu- 
tary as  sorrow.  Remember,  I  do  not  look 
upon  these  laws  as  "  laws  of  matter,"  a  term 
so  objectionable  to  you ;  they  are  laws  ema- 
nating from  the  Divine  source  and  pertain  to 
the  physical  {not  "material")  phenomena. 

So,  for  me,  the  human  body,  being  not  a 
product  of  "mortal  mind,"  but,  instead,  the 
habitation  of  the  ego  —  no  less  so  because  a 
microscopic  examination  of  the  brain  fails  to 
disclose  mind  —  is  as  worthy  an  object  of 
admiration  as  is  the  rose.  And,  if  it  be  not 
permitted  to  induce  a  morbid  interest  in  the 
physical,  a  knowledge  of  physiology  —  which 
is  under  condemnation  with  you  and  with 
those  who  think  with  you  —  seems  to  me  to 


Mind  Over  Body  65 

be  as  justifiable  as  is  a  study  of  botany, 
that  is,  the  physiology  of  plants,  which  you 
permit. 

Having  in  mind  that  certain  physical  laws 
(not  "material"  laws,  not  laws  of  "mortal 
mind,"  but  laws  established  by  Infinite  Love 
and  Wisdom)  declare  that  man  needs  fresh 
air  and  sunshine  for  the  maintenance  of  his 
body,  a  reasonable  attention  to  hygienic  con- 
ditions—  avoiding  any  tendency  to  morbid 
mental  absorption  in  them  —  is  in  accord 
with  the  intent  which  those  laws  manifest. 

A  friend  of  mine  asked  a  Christian  Sci- 
entist why  she  ventilates  her  home.  She 
replied,  resentingly,  "Not  for  health  pur- 
poses, certainly."*  He  forebore  pressing  for 
an  explanation,  understanding  that  she  meant 
that  she  ventilates  solely  because  vitiated  air 
is  unpleasant  to  her.  But,  even  so,  is  not 
the  resulting  disagreeableness  a  mere  mental 
concept,  in  the  sense  in  which  you  claim  lack 
of  health  to  be  ?     Why  ventilate  ? 


*  The  Christian  Scientist  may  do  no  act  "  for  health 
purposes." 


66  Mind  Over  Body 

Since  you  are  a  musician,  I  shall  end  this 
letter  by  trying  to  make  clearer  my  meaning 
in  regard  to  the  non-existence  of  evil,  by 
using  a  musical  symbol. 

Imagine  a  musical  composition  that  con- 
cludes with  a  sub-tonic  chord,  or  with  a  dis- 
sonance. First,  could  the  resulting  mental 
pain  be,  except  through  the  physical  sense 
of  hearing?  And  is  not  this  consciousness 
of  incompleteness,  this  yearning  for  the  tonic 
chord,  the  rest-note,  illustrative  of  man's  real- 
ization —  through  experience  and  the  protests 
of  conscience  —  of  having  not  chosen  the 
right  way ;  symbolical  of  his  longing  for  the 
ideal,  the  spiritual ;  illustrative  also,  through 
the  physical  sense  of  pain,  of  his  inharmony 
with  God's  laws  that  govern  on  the  physical 
plane  ? 

But,  the  fact  that  the  dissonance  is  a  legiti- 
mate part  of  the  completed  symphony,  and 
that  it  is  not  discordant  unless  heard  separate 
or  apart,  is  analogous  to  my  notion  that 
sorrow,  evil,  pain,  are  "salutary,"  have  their 


Mind  Over  Body  67 

uses,  and  are  not  evil  except  they  be  re- 
garded without  considering  their  relation  to 
the  whole  of  man's  conscious  existence. 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  I  believe  "  All  is 
good,  there  is  no  evil." 

"  To  feel,  although  no  tongue  can  prove, 
That  every  cloud  that  spreads  above 
And  veileth  love,  itself  is  love  ; 
All  discord,  harmony  not  understood." 


68  Mind  Over  Body 

VIII 

Denver,  Colo., 
Dear  Friend : 


In  the  face  of  the  phenomena  connected 
with  mental  science,  faith  -  healing,  New 
Thought,  Spiritual  Science,  Christian  Sci- 
ence, hypnotism  —  to  say  nothing  of  the  or- 
dinary psychological  phenomena  of  every-day 
life  —  no  thoughtful  person  dare  deny  the 
influence  of  the  states  of  the  mind  over  the 
body  —  for  good  or  for  ill.  And  I  believe 
that,  superior  to  these  and  through  these,  the 
spiritual  forces  of  the  Divine  Mind  work. 

Did  I  believe  —  in  the  way  that  you  do  — 
that  spirit  is  all ;  that  consequently  there  can 
be  no  legitimate  place  for  the  intellectual  or 
physical ;  that  these  are  illusions  of  "  mortal 
mind  "  ;  there  could  be  for  me  but  the  con- 
clusion that,  the  alleged  "  demonstrations  " 
prove  the  truth  of  Christian  Science.  But, 
believing  the  intellectual  and  physical  to  be 
legitimate    parts    of    the    "universe,    God's 


Mind  Over  Body  69 

spiritual  concept "  ;  and  seeing  that  healings 
of  physical  illnesses  —  aye,  and  spiritual  ill- 
nesses—  result  from,  or  at  any  rate  follow, 
mental  therapeutic  methods  other  than  yours, 
I  again  insist,  for  myself,  upon  the  right  to 
inquire  if  some  law  be  not  common  to 
them  all. 

God  is  the  power ;  what  is  the  law,  what 
the  process  ? 

You  will  be  as  ready  as  I  —  doubtless  even 
more  ready  —  to  claim  that  a  very  consider- 
able percentage  of  the  cases  of  illness  for 
which  physicians  have  been  called  would 
have  disappeared  without  such  intervention. 
And  I  maintain  that  the  same  applies  to  a  very 
large  percentage  of  alleged  Christian  Science 
cures. 

There  is  no  one  who  has  not  experienced 
ailments  that  have,  as  one  might  say,  "dis- 
appeared of  themselves  "  —  a  cut,  a  bruise,  a 
head-ache,  a  fever,  and  even  more  serious  in- 
dispositions, to  which,  because  of  the  mind 
having  been  otherwise  occupied,  little  or  no 
attention  was  paid  ;  the  disappearance  doubt- 


70  Mind  Over  Body 

less  indirectly  accelerated  because  of  the  lack 
of  attention. 

Was  any  remedial  force  at  work  other  than 
the  power  of  Nature  ? 

As  to  cures  that  have  been  brought  about 
through  mental  therapeutics,  "  whatever  the 
powers  may  be  that  accomplish  the  effects 
we  are  considering  in  reference  to  our  mental 
states,  they  cannot  be  essentially  different 
from  the  forces  that  do  such  things  in  the 
ordinary  experience  of  life.  He  who  is  ill,  if 
he  be  properly  cared  for,  and  if  his  vital 
forces  have  sufficient  strength,  will  recover, 
and  we  say  the  power  of  Nature  did  it.  For 
the  man  who  breaks  an  arm,  the  power  of 
Nature  will,  in  a  marvelous  way,  form  new 
bone  at  the  point  of  fracture  and  knit  the 
pieces  together. 

"  What  is  this  «  power  of  Nature '  that  per- 
forms thus,  in  the  common  experience  of  us 
all,  a  cure  as  wonderful  as  any  claimed  by 
faith-curist,  Christian  Scientist,  mental  scien- 
tist, or  hypnotist  ?  If,  by  the  power  of  Nat- 
ure, we  mean  some  inherent,  inanimate  force 


Mind  Over  Body  Ji 

of  '  material  particles,'  then  the  words  express 
a  doctrine  from  the  infernal  regions.  The 
power  of  Nature  in  healing  a  broken  arm  is 
simply  the  power  of  life,  which  in  a  marvel- 
ous way  descends  into  the  body  from  the 
Infinite  Source  of  life  and  effects  the  cure. 
"All  healing,  then,  of  the  kind  we  are 
considering  must  be  looked  upon  as  simply 
results  of  methods  whereby  the  fountains  of 
life  are  more  copiously  opened  and  obstacles 
removed  that  prevent  their  influence.  Heal- 
ing from  what  is  looked  upon  as  some  spirit- 
ual cause,  and  healing  by  means  of  what  we 
call  the  ordinary  processes  of  Nature,  must 
in  their  essence  be  identical.  Both  are  the 
effects  of  the  power  of  life.  Both  are  from 
God." 

The  law  is  the  law  of  suggestion ;  the 
process  is  the  removing  of  the  mental  ob- 
stacles to  the  operation  of  the  life-giving,  life- 
maintaining  forces  from  the  spiritual,  which 
are  the  effective  causes  of  phenomena  mani- 


72  Mind  Over  Body 

fested  on  the  physical  plane.  But  this  process 
is  not  peculiar  to  Christian  Science  alone. 

In  many  cases  there  is  necessary  only  a 
diversion  of  the  mind  to  another  channel,  a 
substitution  of  a  new  habit  of  thought  for  the 
existing  one.  In  other  cases  an  efficient  aid 
may  come  through  a  belief  in  the  proposed 
remedy,  which  belief  itself  acts  as  the  diver- 
sion. 

I  believe  that,  in  cases  where  cures  have 
followed  the  "treatments  "  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence healers — cases  in  which  the  mental 
state  needed  some  kind  of  intervention  to 
give  the  life-forces  opportunity  —  sometimes 
the  mere  diversion  was  all  that  was  operative  ; 
sometimes  the  diversion  that  came  from  the 
belief  that  in  the  philosophy  itself  lay  some 
curative  force. 

So  long  ago  as  1784,  Benjamin  Franklin 
wrote  from  Paris  in  regard  to  mesmerism  : 

"  Mesmer  is  still  here.  ...  I  suppose  all 
the  physicians  in  France  put  together  have 
not  made  so  much  money,  during  the  time 


Mind  Over  Body  73 

he  has  been  here,  as  he  alone  has  done.  .  .  . 
There  are  so  many  disorders  which  cure  them- 
selves, and  such  a  disposition  in  mankind  to 
deceive  themselves  and  one  another  on  these 
occasions  ;  and  living  long  has  given  me  so 
many  opportunities  of  seeing  certain  remedies 
cried  up  as  curing  everything  and  yet  soon 
after  laid  aside  as  useless ;  I  cannot  but  fear 
that  the  expectation  of  great  advantage  from 
this  new  method  of  treating  diseases  will 
prove  a  delusion.  That  delusion  may,  how- 
ever, and  in  some  cases  will,  be  of  use  while 
it  lasts.  There  are  in  every  great,  rich  city, 
a  number  of  persons  who  are  never  in  health, 
because  they  are  fond  of  medicines  and  are 
always  taking  them,  whereby  they  derange 
the  natural  functions  and  hurt  their  constitu- 
tion. If  these  people  can  be  persuaded  to 
forbear  their  drugs,  in  expectation  of  being 
cured  by  only  the  physician's  finger  —  or  an 
iron  rod  —  pointing  at  them,  they  may  pos- 
sibly find  good  effects,  though  they  may 
mistake  the  cause."  (Sparks'  Franklin,  vol. 
1,  p.  504.) 

You  will  —  as  will  I  —  commend  Franklin 
for  his  incredulity  in  respect  to  this  particular 
"  delusion,"  as  he  calls  it ;  and  for  his  con- 
demnation of  the  drug  habit.  But  it  is  to  the 
final  clause  that  I  wish  to  call  your  attention 
—  "though   they    may  mistake   the   cause." 


74  Mind  Over  Body 

You  will  agree  that  they  did  mistake  the 
cause.  And  you  will  claim  that  the  cause 
was  mental,  and  I  agree  to  that.  But  I  con- 
tend that  the  results  —  as  were  those  follow- 
ing the  incantations  of  the  Indian  "  medicine- 
man" and  the  treatment  of  mental  scien- 
tist, Christian  Scientist,  hypnotist,  and  so  on 
—  were  because  of  the  subconscious  action  of 
the  changed  line  of  conscious  thought,  mani- 
festing itself  in  the  restoration  of  the  natural 
function  of  the  organs  of  a  "physical"  body. 


Mind  Over  Body  75. 


IX 

"  Our  highest  truths  are  but  half-truths. 
Think  not  to  settle  down  in  any  truth. 
Make  use  of  it  as  a  tent  in  which  to  pass  a  summer  night, 
but  build  no  house  of  it,  or  it  will  be  your  tomb." 
—  Ernest  Crosby. 

Denver,  Colo., 

Dear  Friend : 


Not  long  ago,  one  of  the  leading  physicians 
of  Chicago  read  a  paper  before  the  Chicago 
Literary  Club,  exhibiting  such  a  marked  de- 
parture from  the  usual  line  of  thought  of  the 
old-time  practitioners,  and  of  such  value  to 
this  present  discussion,  that  I  quote  at  length 
from  it :  — 

".  .  .  .  The  soul,  however  distinct  its 
image  to  the  eye  of  faith,  is  not  visible  to  the 
eye  of  physiology,  and  hence  is  beyond  the 
pale  of  this  discussion ;  those  phenomena 
which,  from  habit  and  convenience,  we  call 
the  mind,  are  manifestations  of  force  inherent 
in  the  physical  universe,  and  are  different  in 
no  wise,  except  in  degree,  from  the  phenom- 
ena displayed  by  the  lowliest  creatures  that 
have  received  the  divine  afflatus  —  life. 


j6  Mind  Over  Body 

".  .  .  .  Certain  functions  of  the  body 
seem  to  be  endowed  with  an  intelligence  of 
their  own  —  independent  of  the  conscious, 
individual  mind ;  that  is,  from  the  standpoint 
of  this  conscious  mind,  they  are  automatic. 
This  automatic  intelligence  —  which  is  plainly 
the  inherited,  crystallized  experience  of  count- 
less ancestors  in  the  preservation  of  the  race 
—  we  call  instinct,  or  emotion. 

"  The  egoistic  mind  of  man,  his  conscious 
memory  and  his  reason,  whereby  his  instinct- 
ive mind  establishes  communication  with  the 
outside  world,  is  biologically  merely  the  serv- 
ant of  this  instinct ;  it  is  the  dog  leading  the 
blind  man,  but  only  a  dog  after  all. 

"  My  main  proposition  in  the  biological 
definition  of  mind  is,  therefore,  that  the 
instincts  are  the  essential  mind,  the  trans- 
mitted intelligence  of  the  race,  and  that  they 
directly  control  the  vital  organs ;  while  the 
conscious  intellect  is  the  subservient  mind, 
which  has  no  direct  communication  with  the 
essential  organs. 

"  That  the  emotions  are  directly  —  the 
reason  only  indirectly  —  associated  with  the 
vital  bodily  functions  needs  no  demonstra- 
tion, because  illustrations  are  familiar  to  all. 
Thus,  no  man  can  at  will  strengthen  or 
weaken  his  heart-beat,  accelerate  or  retard 
his  pulse,  blanch  or  redden  his  cheek,  arrest 
his  digestion,  evacuate  his  stomach,  or  in- 
crease the  secretion  of  his  sweat-glands  ;  yet 
when  dominated  by  the  instincts  fear,  anger, 


Mind  Over  Body  J  J 

grief,  and  so  forth,  he  regularly  does  one  or 
other  of  those  things,  even  against  the  dic- 
tates of  reason.  This  absolute  control  of 
the  instinctive  —  as  distinguished  from  the 
rational  —  mind  over  vital  organs,  is  nicely- 
shown  at  the  first  surgical  clinic  of  a  medical 
college  term,  when  one  or  more  freshman 
spectators  on  the  benches  become  faint  or 
nauseated  as  soon  as  the  teacher  of  surgery 
spills  blood. 

"That  a  mental  influence  which  so  com- 
pletely dominates  vital  functions  can,  by  ex- 
cessive or  prolonged  activity,  derange  those 
functions,  is  both  plausible  and  demonstrable  ; 
and  it  is  equally  true  that  an  arrest  of  such 
emotional  activity  may  be  followed  by  a 
restoration  of  normal  functions. 

"  Mental  influences  are  valuable  in  the 
treatment  of  disease  in  so  far  as  they  secure 
a  proper  balance  of  the  patient's  emotions, 
and,  through  these,  normal  bodily  functions. 
Mental  influences  have,  therefore,  a  theoreti- 
cal increment  of  value  even  in  organic  dis- 
ease, since  by  calming  the  fear  of  death  or 
other  strong  emotion,  they  may  improve 
digestion,  circulation,  and  so  forth,  and  thus 
enable  the  body  to  battle  more  vigorously 
with  the  invader.  That  the  aid  afforded 
through  the  patient's  mind  against  such  tan- 
gible foes  is,  however,  trivial,  is  illustrated  by 
the  familiar  observation  that  the  consump- 
tive's confidence  in  his  ultimate  recovery 
often  increases  as  he  approaches  the  grave. 


78  Mind  Over  Body 

The  physician  whose  cheery,  confident  pres- 
ence rivals  the  sunshine  in  the  sick  chamber, 
secures  the  patient's  affection,  but  not  his 
recovery,  thereby. 

"  Mental  influences  are  of  demonstrable 
value,  however,  in  the  treatment  not  of 
organic,  but  of  functional  —  that  is,  emo- 
tional—  disease.  This  is  the  field  in  which 
mental  suggestion  —  whether  called  by  its 
proper  title,  or  misnamed  Christian  Science, 
faith  cure,  animal  magnetism,  Divine  healing, 
hypnotism,  or  the  bone  of  a  saint  —  does 
unquestionably  cure  an  occasional  patient 
whom  physicians,  drugs,  and  reason  have 
failed  to  relieve. 

"  Physicians  include  such  emotional  states 
under  the  general  term  hysteria.  Now  this 
word  does  not  mean,  as  the  average  layman 
thinks,  merely  an  alternation  of  senseless 
laughter  and  tears ;  nor  does  it  imply,  as  the 
average  physician  thinks,  conscious  deceit 
on  the  part  of  the  hysterical  patient.  Hys- 
teria means  any  functional  derangement  due 
to  emotion,  and  displays  affections  of  all  parts 
of  the  body,  such  as  dyspepsia,  paralysis, 
rigidity  of  joints,  spinal  curvature,  the  trance, 
even  blindness  ;  and  the  derangements  may 
be  just  as  honest  and  real,  just  as  beyond  the 
control  of  the  conscious  mind,  as  are  the 
nausea,  faintness,  even  vomiting,  induced  in 
many  by  a  ghastly  sight  or  a  disgusting  odor. 
Any  influence  which  will  restore  the  emo- 
tional balance  of  such  a  patient  will  thereby 


Mind  Over  Body  79 

rapidly  cure  an  hysterical  disease,  even  blind- 
ness. Physicians,  busied  with  the  obvious 
ravages  of  organic  disease,  too  often  ignore 
the  subtle  influence  of  the  emotions ;  and 
their  negligence  is  the  opportunity  of  the 
charlatan. 

"  Though  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  see  a 
woman  who  had  suffered  the  agonies  of 
strangulated  hernia  and  peritonitis  for  five 
days  under  faith-cure  treatment,  snatched 
from  death  by  the  surgeon's  knife ;  and  to 
see  a  horrible  ulcer  which  for  six  weeks  had 
been  eating  away  the  nose  of  a  young  matron 
under  Christian  Science  treatment,  promptly 
arrested  and  healed  by  remedies  for  syphilis ; 
yet  such  ignorant — yes,  criminal  —  failures 
to  influence  curable  organic  disease  do  not  in 
the  least  argue  against  the  power  of  mental 
suggestion  over  functional  disease.  That  it 
is  the  one  remedy  for  disease  of  emotional 
origin  is  exemplified  in  the  following  personal 
observation  :  — 

"  Some  years  ago  an  unmarried  lady  about 
thirty  years  of  age  was  afflicted  with  an  ap- 
parently fatal  disease.  At  the  time  this 
observation  began  she  had  been  bed-ridden 
for  a  year ;  had  become  emaciated  and  too 
weak  even  to  feed  herself ;  one  leg  was  partly 
paralyzed ;  for  months  her  eyes  had  been 
unable  to  endure  the  faintest  ray  of  light. 
Her  room  had  been  kept  absolutely  dark,  and 
to  this  dungeon  had  been  admitted  only  her 
mother,  her  nurse,  and  her  physicians,  whose 


80  Mind  Over  Body 

skillful  ministrations  had,  however,  failed  to 
check  her  gradual  decline.  The  most  exhaust- 
ive examination  failing  to  reveal  any  organic 
disease,  an  emotional  cause  for  her  bodily  ail- 
ment was  assumed,  although  inquiry  in  her 
family  disclosed  no  trace  of  a  faithless  lover, 
cruel  parent,  or  other  orthodox  agency  in 
cardiac  fracture. 

"The  following  plan  of  treatment  was  in- 
stituted :  she  was  told  that  her  ailment  was 
due  to  sewer-gas,  and  that  her  removal  to  a 
sanitary  dwelling  would  at  once  start  her  on 
the  road  to  recovery.  I  may  say,  incident- 
ally, that  the  popular  faith  in  sewer-gas, 
malaria,  and  more  recently,  grippe,  as  the 
explanation  of  all  obscure  ailments,  smooths 
down  many  rough  places  in  the  path  of  the 
physician. 

"Accordingly,  on  the  appointed  day,  her 
eyes  were  thickly  bandaged,  she  was  lifted 
into  a  closely  curtained  stretcher,  carried 
carefully  to  a  covered  wagon,  driven  a  half- 
mile  to  a  railway,  where  a  special  train,  in- 
cluding a  tightly  curtained  Pullman  sleeper, 
awaited  her ;  transported  in  this  car  to  an 
adjoining  suburb,  driven  in  another  wagon  to 
her  new  home,  and  finally  deposited,  almost 
dead  from  fright  and  fatigue,  in  her  carefully 
darkened  chamber. 

"  The  new  residence  possessed,  besides  its 
freedom  from  sewer  gas,  two  attractive  feat- 
ures ;  from  its  windows  were  visible  on  the 
one  side  the  buildings  of  the  "  White  City," 


Mind  Over  Body  81 

even  then  beginning  to  unfold  the  glories 
which  later  charmed  the  world ;  and  on  the 
other  side  were  often  displayed,  on  the  person 
of  a  young  lady  neighbor,  some  of  the  <  swell- 
est '  gowns  in  town.  The  charms  of  these 
rival  expositions  were  casually  but  continually 
dinned  into  the  ears  of  the  patient,  because 
high  in  the  category  of  feminine  emotions 
stand  curiosity  and  love  of  the  beautiful. 

"  Three  weeks  after  her  removal,  the  lady 
was  sitting  at  her  window,  admiring  the 
mighty  buildings  and  criticizing  the  dry- 
goods  ;  and  some  weeks  later  she  was  prom- 
enading the  Fairgrounds  and  leading  the  rush 
line  at  Field's  bargain-counter. 

"  Now,  what  ailed  this  young  woman,  and 
what  cured  her  ?  Her  disease  was  plainly  a 
derangement  of  her  physical  functions  caused 
by  an  ungratified  instinct,  although  which  of 
her  emotions  was  the  active  agent  can  be 
even  now  only  conjectured ;  indeed,  she  may 
herself  have  been  unconscious  of  its  identity. 
Her  recovery  would  have  been  ascribed  to 
the  drugs  administered,  to  Christian  Science, 
Divine  healing,  holy  relics,  or  animal  magnet- 
ism, had  her  physician  so  proclaimed.  It 
was  actually  a  successful  struggle  against  her 
ungratified,  unidentified  instinct,  by  her  other 
emotions  —  faith,  curiosity,  and  love  of  the 
beautiful  —  which  were  aroused  to  the  un- 
conscious strife  by  the  suggestions  of  her 
physician ;  and  she  is  to-day  a  healthy  and 
happy  example  of   the  value  of   mental  im- 


82  Mind  Over  Body 

pressions    in    the    treatment    of     emotional 
disease." 

Who  has  not  had  the  experience  of  stop- 
ping, by  a  funny  story  or  some  grotesque- 
ness,  a  child's  crying  —  and  that,  too,  more 
or  less  quickly  —  over  some  pretty  hard 
bump  that  really  hurt  ? 

With  a  little  child  who  is  not  in  the  habit 
of  crying  without  cause,  I  have,  by  pretending 
to  remove  —  with  a  toothpick  —  something 
from  between  the  teeth,  stopped  a  crying 
spell  caused  by  a  tooth-ache.  True,  it  was 
probably  not  a  case  of  nerve-exposure. 

In  my  presence  a  little  girl,  slightly  stung 
by  a  bee,  ran  screaming  toward  her  parents. 
The  mother,  a  Christian  Scientist,  was  about 
to  hurry  the  child  into  the  house  and  "  treat " 
her,  but  the  father  interposed  and  very  quickly 
quieted  her  with  a  few  words.  Had  the  child 
gone  with  the  mother,  the  latter  would  have 
claimed  a  "  demonstration  "  for  Christian  Sci- 
ence. It  would  have  been  (as  was  the  result 
of  the  father's  act,  and  as  in  the  case  of  the 
bump,  and  of  the  tooth-ache)  a  demonstration 


Mind  Over  Body  83 

of  the  pain-alleviating  effect  of  diverting  the 
mind  into  different  channels,  but  not  a  proof, 
for  me,  of  the  Christian  Science  philosophy. 

Last  summer  I  was  at  San  Pedro,  California, 
and  while  waiting  for  the  boat  to  start  for 
Avalon,  —  it  was  tied  to  the  dock  in  water 
absolutely  quiet,  there  was  not  the  slightest 
motion,  —  a  rosy  -  cheeked,  buxom  miss,  one 
of  a  group  of  young  folk,  became  seasick 
and  vomited  over  the  boat's  rail.  A  young 
man,  one  of  the  party,  started  a  very  enter- 
taining story,  and,  as  he  was  a  charming 
story-teller,  he  had  the  group  interested  at 
once,  and  the  girl's  seasickness  was  dispelled, 
forgotten.  That's  just  it !  She  forgot  the 
notion  of  seasickness. 

You  and  I  may  agree  that  the  thought  of 
seasickness  that  she  had  consciously  held 
had  worked  subconsciously  upon  her  internal 
organs  and  produced  nausea;  and  that  this 
had  been  counteracted  by  the  substitution  of 
another  line  of  thought.  But,  had  a  Chris- 
tian Scientist  been  the  immediate  instrument 
of  this  cure,  at  once  would  have  entered  our 


84  Mind  Over  Body 

disagreement.  You  would  have  claimed  that 
the  "  demonstration "  proved  the  truth  of 
Christian  Science,  with  all  that  that  implies ; 
while  I  claim  that  there  would  have  been 
involved  no  question  of  the  character  of  the 
objective  universe,  the  reality  of  evil,  the 
individuality  of  the  ego,  and  so  forth. 

And  I  also  claim  that  the  manifestation 
was  on  a  physical  plane,  the  changed  state 
of  mind  resulting  in  the  normal  action  of  a 
physical  body. 

Though  the  illustrations  I  have  cited  are 
so  commonplace,  there  enters  into  all  phe- 
nomena of  suggestive  therapeutics  these  same 
questions  of  what  is  involved  and  what  is  not 
involved,  and,  for  me,  the  same  conclusion. 

As  I  have  said  in  a  former  letter,  we  know 
nothing  of  the  nature  of  the  objective  uni- 
verse. Though  the  chemist  were  able  to 
resolve  the  diamond  into  one  primary  ele- 
ment, he  would  not  know  what  it  is  that  he 
then  held.  We  do  not  need  to  know.  But, 
that  we  do  not  know  is  not,  for  me,  sufficient 
reason  for  denying  the  reality  of  the  objects 


Mind  Over  Body  85 

of  our  senses.  As  reasonable  would  it  be  to 
deny  the  reality  of  mind,  merely  because  we 
are  ignorant  of  its  nature,  as  absolutely  as 
we  are  of  the  nature  of  matter  (so-called). 

Nor  do  we  need  to  know  what  it  is  that 
constitutes  mind ;  we  know  only  the  results 
of  its  action. 

We  do  know  that-  the  thought  held  con- 
sciously acts  subconsciously  on  the  organs  of 
the  body.  And  we  know  as  little  of  the 
actual  process  of  this  action  as  we  know  of 
the  character  of  mind  or  "  matter."  And  the 
knowledge  necessary  for  us  is,  not  how  this 
action  takes  place,  but  that  it  does  occur. 


86  Mind  Over  Body 


X 


....  There  is  no  Death  !  .  .  . 

And  every  change  which  we  ascribe  to  Death 

Is  but  a  change  in  form  or  state 

Of  something  which  can  never  cease  to  live." 

—  Wm.  H.  Uolcombe,  in  "  New  Thanatopsis." 


Denver,  Colo., 
Dear  Friend : 


When  it  comes  to  giving  consideration  to 
the  Christian  Scientist's  view  of  death,  so- 
called —  (I  say  "so-called,"  for  "who  knows 
but  life  be  that  which  men  call  death,  and 
death  what  men  call  life?")  —  one  is  con- 
fronted with  the  difficult  problem  of  having 
to  determine  what  the  Christian  Scientist's 
position  is. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  in  Science  and  Health,  writes : 
"Those  who  reach  this  transition  called 
death,"  and  so  forth.  And,  again,  in  Sci- 
ence and  Health  is  the  suggestion  that  the 
greater  longevity  (Mrs.  Eddy's  own  word) 
of  the  race  will  be  the  result  of  the  influence 


Mind  Over  Body  87 

of  the  universal  acceptance  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence. These  seem  to  give  validity  to  the 
idea  of  the  cessation,  at  some  time,  of  the 
phenomenon  of  the  physical  manifestation  of 
the  individual  ego. 

Yet,  from  your  letters  and  from  conversa- 
tions with  Christian  Scientists,  I  find  this 
idea  to  be  abrogated,  and  the  notion  of 
merely  increased  longevity  —  through  the 
elimination  of  disease,  because  of  the  spirit- 
ualization  of  the  race  —  carried  to  the  ex- 
tremity of  a  belief  that,  through  Christian 
Science,  the  "  transition  called  death  "  will 
be  altogether  avoided.  And  it  is  argued  that 
the  spiritual  man  knows  not  time ;  hence 
even  "old  age"  (with  its  accompanying  de- 
cline of  the  physical  powers),  being  a  product 
of  "  mortal  mind,"  will  no  longer  be.  There- 
fore, "  death  "  from  that  cause  also  is  a  cir- 
cumstance inconceivable  were  the  principles 
enunciated  in  Science  and  Health  to  dominate 
absolutely. 

I  can  conceive  of  one  being  in  such  a  state 
of  rapture  —  consequent    upon  his  complete 


88  Mind  Over  Body 

absorption  in  something  that  intensely  inter- 
ests him,  such  as  religion,  a  book,  the  carry- 
ing a  new  line  of  thought  to  its  conclusion, 
and  so  forth  —  as  to  be  absolutely  oblivious 
to  all  discomforts,  ordinary  or  extreme. 

I  can  even  conceive  of  this  state  of  mind 
being  so  continuously  prolonged  that  he  can  ex- 
perience the  "transition  called  death  "  without 
even  being  conscious  of  it.  But,  that  this 
transition  will  not  come,  —  through  starva- 
tion, freezing,  asphyxiation,  loss  of  blood,  and 
so  forth,  —  even  though  his  mental  exaltation 
be  one  of  complete  spirituality,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary, to  me,  to  be  believed. 

Similarly,  for  me,  it  is  not  inharmonious 
with  the  Divine  plan  that  man  (as  we  know 
him  on  the  physical  plane),  —  though  his  life 
approach  consonance  with  spiritual  law,  and 
increasingly  so  as  his  years  progress ;  and 
though  he  ignore  the  element  of  time,  having 
reached  his  three  score  years  and  ten  —  or 
a  Methuselan  age,  as  the  case  may  be  — 
shall  "wrap  the  drapery  of  his  couch  about 
him  and  lie  down  to  pleasant  dreams." 


Mind  Over  Body  89 

And,  though  man  be  "cut  off"  prema- 
turely by  accident*  or  by  disease,  these  are 
manifestations  of  the  action  of  forces  emanat- 
ing from  the  spiritual,  and,  for  me,  are  not 
evil. 

Surely,  the  Christian  Scientist  ought  to 
agree  that  these  seeming  evils  are  at  any  rate 
not  irreparable,  since  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  in 
Science  and  Health,  "  Those  who  reach 
this  transition  called  death,  without  having 
rightly  improved  the  lessons  of  this  primary 
school  of  mortal  existence  .  .  .  awake  only 
to  another  sphere  of  experience  and  must 
pass  through  another  probationary  state." 

With  this  statement  in  mind,  why  such  an 
intense  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Christian 
Scientist  to  keep  himself,  or  others,  indef- 
initely "  in  the  flesh "  ?  Why  such  a  pre- 
ponderating consideration  of  the  maintenance 
of  a  physical  body,  —  a  consideration  carried 
to  such  an  extent  among  your  devotees  as 
to  take  precedence,  to  a  great  degree,  of  the 


*  There  is  no  such  thing  as  accident,  but  let  that  pass, 
here. 


90  Mind  Over  Body 

contemplation  of  things  spiritual?  The  re- 
sult of  this  has  been  that  Christian  Science 
has  come  to  be  looked  upon  as,  primarily,  a 
system  of  therapeutics.  In  support  of  this 
last  assertion  I  point  to  the  fact  that  it  is 
almost  always  to  physical  cures  that  attention 
of  unbelievers  in  Christian  Science  is  called  ; 
and  that  it  is  through  physical  cures  that  you 
seek  to  —  and  do  —  gain  proselytes. 

Why  this  consuming  interest  in  the  pre- 
vention of  the  "death"  of  the  body,  when 
it  is  possible  —  if  one  has  real  confidence  in 
God  —  to  have  faith  that  "  real  being  cannot 
die ;  that  the  very  fact  of  life,  in  any  form, 
means  the  continuance  of  life  even  though 
the  form  be  changed  "  * ;  and  that  there  is 
"another  probationary  state,"  f  and  so  forth  ? 

You  will  reply  that  it  is  because  wrong 
mental  condition  —  and,  back  of  that,  an 
ignorance  of  spiritual  law  —  is  manifested  in 
a  diseased  body,  that  you  are  so  interested  in 
the  cure  of  disease. 


Not  from  Mrs.  Eddy.  t  From  Mrs.  Eddy. 


Mind  Over  Body  91 

I  agree  —  nay,  I  assert  —  that  fear,  hate, 
envy,  jealously,  anger  —  forms  of  selfishness, 
all  —  disturb  the  normal  action  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  body,  resulting  in  disorder.  And 
I  also  agree,  and  assert,  that  the  substitution 
of  the  opposites  of  these  malign  emotions 
—  in  other  words,  unselfishness,  love  —  tends 
to  correct  such  disorder  as  these  formerly 
dominating  influences  caused. 

This  is  Christian  Science,  you  say  ?  But, 
certain  qualifications  upon  which  I  place  con- 
siderable emphasis  mark  the  difference  be- 
tween your  position  and  mine  :  — 

First :  —  Such  conditions  as  result  from  fear, 
hate,  and  so  forth,  are  not  evil  but  good,  in 
that  they  serve  to  show  that  the  realization 
of  the  true  spiritual  state  does  not  prevail. 

Second  :  —  The  result  of  the  changed  mental 
state  is  an  orderly  resumption  of  the  functions 
of  the  organs  of  a  physical  body,  upon  which 
you  look  (as  you  do  on  all  things  physical)  as 
a  product  of  "mortal  mind,"  evil.*    "What 


*  In  the  New    York  Herald,   December  6,   1908,  Mr. 
Alfred  Farlow,  of  Boston  (general  manager  of  the  Chris- 


92  Mind  Over  Body 

God  has  cleansed,  call  thou  not  common  or 
unclean." 

Third  :  —  Though  this  principle  (that  love 
will  correct  what  selfishness  has  caused) 
come  to  absolutely  dominate  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  race,  yet  shall  the  "transition 
called  death"  never  be  avoided,  ultimately. 
The  result  will  be  merely  a  greater  individual 
and  racial  longevity. 

Fourth  (and  one  of  the  most  important) :  — 


tian  Science  Committee  on  Publication),  takes  issue  as 
follows  with  Bishop  Fallows,  of  Chicago,  on  the  position 
the  latter  takes,  similar  to  the  above  : 

"  Christian  Science  affirms  .  .  .  that  when  mortals  be- 
come fully  conscious  of  the  spiritual  truth  of  being,  the 
body  will  manifest  perfect  harmony  —  i.  e.,  it  will  be  a  per- 
fect expression  of  the  perfect  Mind,  God." 

How  can  you,  or  Mr.  Farlow,  reconcile  this  assertion 
with  the  following  from  Science  and  Health?  — 

"  Indeed,  the  body  presents  no  proper  likeness  of  divin- 
ity, though  mortal  mind  would  fain  have  us  so  believe  " 
(p.  302). 

"...  the  body  is  the  substratum  of  mortal  mind  "  (p. 
37i)- 

"  Mortal  mind  and  body  are  one.  .  .  .  Matter,  or  body, 
is  but  a  false  concept  of  mortal  mind.  This  so-called  mind 
builds  its  own  superstructure,  of  which  the  material  body 
is  the  grosser  part ;  but  from  first  to  last,  the  body  is  a 
sensuous,  human  concept"  (p.  177). 


Mind  Over  Body  93 

The  disorder  caused  by  a  cinder  in  the  eye 
is  not  to  be  accounted  for  as  resulting  from 
fear,  hate,  envy,  and  so  forth,  though  these 
may,  and  doubtless  do,  aggravate  it.  And 
such  disorder  will  be  corrected  only  by  the 
removal  of  the  cinder ;  and  for  this  purpose 
I  was  given  a  physical  hand.  And,  to  my 
mind,  the  unsolved  question  is  to  be  able 
to  distinguish  between  such  diseases  as  are 
caused  by  wrong  mental  states,  and  those 
that  are  analogous  to  the  cinder  in  the  eye ; 
which  illustration  I  have  used  merely  as  a 
type  of  disorder-producing  foreign  substances 
in  the  human  mechanism. 


94  Mind  Over  Body 


XI 


There  is  a  new  strange  song  in  the  air." 

—  Lathbury 


Denver,  Colo., 
Dear ; 


The  tendency  of  the  last  fifty  years  —  more 
or  less  —  has  been  materialistic  ;  has  been  to 
give  too  great  importance  to  the  physical,  to 
the  things  of  the  world ;  manifesting  itself  in- 
creasingly in  lust  for  fame,  for  power,  for 
position,  for  wealth.  Things  spiritual  have 
come  to  be  minimized,  to  be  almost  ignored, 
their  consideration  having  become,  too  gener- 
ally, the  merest  formalism.  "There  is  a  new 
strange  song  in  the  air."  A  reaction,  like 
to  that  of  Puritanism  following  the  licentious- 
ness of  the  upper  classes  in  England,  has  set 
in.  Along  sociological  lines  it  has  taken  the 
form  of  altruism,  a  feeling  of  brotherhood, 
a  desire  to  establish  the  relations  between 
man  and  man  on  a  nearer  just  basis.     This 


Mind  Over  Body  95 

of  itself  is  a  religious  expression.  But,  along 
more  distinctly  religious  lines,  this  reaction 
has  manifested  itself  in  many  ways ;  among 
them,  Christian  Science,  and  so  forth. 

That  the  tendency  has  been  to  invert  the 
real  relation  between  the  spiritual  and  the 
physical  is  no  justification  for  repudiating  the 
latter  altogether ;  especially  since,  to  my  way 
of  thinking,  the  latter  is  an  expression  of  the 
former. 

A  realization  of  the  relative  values  of 
spiritual  things  and  the  things  of  the  world 
—  both  kept  on  their  proper  plane ;  the 
latter,  though  having  their  legitimate  impor- 
tance, always  subordinated  to  the  former  — 
will  result  in  an  equipoise  that  will  prevent 
the  reaction  from  ultra-materialism  to  a 
reasonless  idealism.  And  I  do  not  believe 
that  with  you  the  latter  position  would  have 
been  acceptable,  did  it  not  seem  to  be  sup- 
ported by  phenomena  (physical,  though  you 
have  lost  sight  of  that  fact)  that  seem  to 
you  otherwise  inexplicable. 


g6  Mind  Over  Body 

Have  you  ever  read  George  Macdonald's 
fairy  story,  The  Giant's  Heart ?  The  little 
girl's  song  to  the  mother-lark  is  so  apro- 
pos of  the  risk  of  so  seeking  God  only 
in  the  spiritual,  as  to  ignore  His  presence 
in  "  the  mud  and  scum  of  things,"  that  I 
quote  part  of  it :  — 

The  father-lark,  soaring  up,  and  up,  and 
always  up,  to  meet  the  sun  (the  King),  yet 
unable  to  find  him  because  of  an  obscuring 
cloud,  returns  to  the  nest  where  he  had  left 
his  wife  alone  in  the  morning. 

"  Did  I  say  alone  ?     Ah,  no  such  thing  ! 
Full  in  her  face  was  shining  the  King. 

*■  Welcome,  Sir  Lark  !     You  look  tired,'  said  he, 

'  Up  is  not  always  the  best  way  to  me. 
While  you  have  been  singing  so  high  and  away, 
I  've  been  shining  to  your  little  wife  all  day.'" 

In  the  same  song  is  the  reproof,  when  the 
lark  seeks  the  approval  of  the  sun  :  — 

"  '  Must  I  thank  you,  then,'  said  the  King,  •  Sir  Lark, 
For  flying  so  high  and  hating  the  dark  ? 
You  ask  a  full  cup  for  half  a  thirst ; 
Half  is  love  of  me,  and  half  love  to  be  first.'  .  .  . 
And  the  King  hid  his  head  in  a  turban  of  cloud, 
And  the  lark  stopped  singing,  quite  vexed  and  cowed." 


Mind  Over  Body  97 

How  suggestive  of  the  necessity  for  care- 
fully analyzing  our  motive,  before  offering  to 
others  our  ideas  ;  and  of  the  advisability  of 
finding  out  how  much  se/f-gratifi cation  is 
involved  because  our  ideas  are  ours. 

Suggestion !  —  the  most  potent  force  in 
man's  experience  in  the  flesh !  "  One  dis- 
piriting word  does  more  than  chill ;  it  is  a 
derelict  afloat,  a  dagger-thrust  at  the  divine 
scheme.  Every  bright  word,  like  every  pleas- 
ant air  of  music,  is  pleasure  in  action ;  it  is 
virtue  and  goodness  at  play.  The  soul  near- 
est us  catches  the  contagion  and  goes  its 
rejoicing  way." 

Who  can  read  a  Daniel  Deronda,  or  any 
novel  of  high  purpose,  without  a  spiritual 
uplift  ?  Or  the  biography  of  a  noble  man  ? 
"  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us  we  can 
make  our  lives  sublime." 

"  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever 
things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just, 
whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things 
are   lovely,  whatsoever   things   are   of   good 


98  Mind  Over  Body 

report ;  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there 
be  any  praise,  think  of  these  things."  To 
him  that  will  observe  this  injunction  will 
come  "the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all 
understanding." 

Clarence  Lathbury,  in  The  Balanced  Life, 
very  beautifully  expresses  this  thought :  — 

"  Wisdom  is  the  mind's  health  and  poise, 
as  love  is  the  health  of  the  heart.  Wisdom 
is  to  the  mind  what  proportion  is  to  the 
body ;  it  is  that  wholesome  quality  which 
lends  thought,  sanity,  and  music,  as  the  wood 
and  strings  of  some  priceless  Stradivarius  are 
made  to  sound  divinely  under  the  hand  of 
the  master.  .  .  .  Like  the  sweetness  of  the 
summer  day,  it  is  something  to  be  experi- 
enced rather  than  denned.  It  is  not  learn- 
ing, nor  is  it  knowledge ;  but  just  wisdom 
past  comprehending,  shining  in  the  heart  of 
humble  folk  and  little  children.  It  is  a 
psychologic  peace  imbued  with  cheerfulness 
and  strength,  a  sort  of  effluence  of  mental 
bloom.  It  breathes  a  holy  impartiality,  hav- 
ing found  that  golden  mean  where  error  and 
excess  are  purged  away." 

But,  as  he  also  says  :  — 

"  The  body  should  have  full  reverence  and 
the   complete    satisfaction   of    its   God-given 


Mind  Over  Body  99 

appetities,  for  in  its  place  it  is  as  holy  as  the 
spirit ;  we  should  listen  to  its  varied  claims 
without  giving  it  rein.  Let  us  take  the  risk 
of  living  while  we  may ;  let  us  wade  deep 
into  the  tide  of  being;  .  .  .  every  bit  of 
deep  true  living  is  just  so  much  more  of  the 
dear  old  world  built  into  the  mansion  of  the 
soul. 

"  How  beautiful  it  is  to  live  to  make  the 
world  happy.  Let  the  song  never  die  away, 
and  the  dance  never  cease ;  let  laughter  flow 
like  melodious  waters  singing  to  the  sea." 


ioo  Mind  Over  Body 


(From  Emerson's  Self -Reliance.) 

"  Everywhere  I  am  bereaved  of  meeting  God 
in  my  brother,  because  he  has  shut  his  own 
temple  doors  and  recites  fables  merely  of 
his  brother's  or  his  brother's  brother's  God. 
Every  mind  is  a  new  classification.  If  it  prove 
a  mind  of  uncommon  activity  and  power,  a 
Locke,  a  Lavoisier,  a  Hutton,  a  Bentham,  a 
Spurzheim,  it  imposes  its  classification  on 
other  men,  and  lo !  a  new  system.  In  pro- 
portion always  to  the  depth  of  the  thought, 
and  so  to  the  number  of  the  objects  it  touches 
and  brings  within  reach  of  the  pupil,  is  his 
complacency.  But  chiefly  is  this  apparent  in 
creeds  and  churches,  which  are  also  classifica- 
tions of  some  powerful  mind  acting  on  the 
great  elemental  thought  of  Duty  and  man's 
relation  to  the  Highest.  Such  is  Calvinism, 
Quakerism,  Swedenborgianww.  The  pupil 
takes  the  same  delight  in  subordinating  every- 
thing to  the  new  terminology  that  a  girl  does 
who  has  just  learned  botany,  in  seeing  a  new 
earth  and  new  seasons  thereby.  It  will  happen 
for  a  time  that  the  pupil  will  feel  a  real  debt 
to  the  teacher —  will  find  his  intellectual  power 
has  grown  by  the  study  of  his  writings.  This 
will  continue  until  he  has  exhausted  his  mas- 
ter's mind.  But  in  all  unbalanced  minds  the 
classification  is  idolized,  passes  for  the  end 


Mind  Over  Body  161 

and  not  for  a  speedily  exhaustible  means,  so 
that  the  walls  of  the  system  blend  to  their 
eye  in  the  remote  horizon  with  the  walls  of 
the  universe ;  the  luminaries  of  heaven  seem 
to  them  hung  on  the  arch  their  master  built. 
They  cannot  imagine  how  you  aliens  have  any 
right  to  see  —  how  you  can  see :  '  It  must 
be  somehow  that  you  stole  the  light  from  us.' 
They  do  not  yet  perceive  that  light  unsystem- 
atic, indomitable,  will  break  into  any  cabin, 
even  into  theirs.  Let  them  chirp  awhile  and 
call  it  their  own.  If  they  are  honest  and  do 
well,  presently  their  neat  new  pinfold  will  be 
too  strait  and  low,  will  crack,  will  lean,  will  rot 
and  vanish,  and  the  immortal  light,  all  young 
and  joyful,  million-orbed,  million-colored,  will 
beam  over  the  universe  as  on  the  first 
morning." 


102  Mind  Over  Body 


The  Parable  of  the  Elephant 
(from  the  Chinese). 

"  There  was  a  noble  and  mighty  elephant,  an 
elephant  white  in  color,  with  a  strong  trunk 
and  long  tusks,  trained  by  a  good  master,  and 
willing  and  serviceable  in  all  the  work  that 
elephants  are  put  to.  And  this  noble  and 
mighty  elephant,  being  led  by  his  guide,  the 
good  master  who  had  trained  him,  came  to 
the  land  of  the  blind.  And  it  was  noised 
about  in  the  land  of  the  blind  that  the  noble 
and  mighty  elephant,  the  king  of  all  beasts, 
the  wisest  of  all  animals,  the  strongest  and 
yet  the  meekest  and  kindliest  of  creatures, 
had  made  his  appearance  in  their  country. 
So  the  wise  men  and  teachers  of  the  blind 
came  to  the  place  where  the  elephant  was, 
and  every  one  began  to  investigate  his  shape 
and  figure  and  form.  And  when  the  elephant 
was  gone  they  met  and  discussed  the  problem 
of  the  noble  and  mighty  beast,  and  there  were 
some  who  said  he  was  like  a  great  thick  snake  ; 
others  said  he  was  like  a  snake  of  medium 
size.  The  former  had  felt  of  the  trunk,  the 
latter  of  the  tail.  Further,  there  were  some 
who  claimed  that  his  figure  was  like  that  of  a 
high  column ;  others  declared  he  was  large 
and  bulky,  like  a  big  barrel ;  still  others  main- 
tained that  he  was  smooth  and  hard,  but  taper- 


Mind  Over  Body  103 

ing.  Some  of  the  blind  had  taken  hold  of  one 
of  the  legs ;  others  had  reached  the  main 
body ;  and  still  others  had  touched  the  tusks. 
Every  one  proposed  his  view,  and  they  dis- 
puted and  controverted,  and  wrangled,  and 
litigated,  and  bickered,  and  quarreled,  and 
called  each  other  names,  and  each  one  impre- 
cated all  the  others,  and  each  one  denounced 
all  the  others,  and  they  abused  and  scolded, 
and  they  anathematized  and  excommunicated, 
and  finally  every  one  of  them  swore  that  every 
one  else  was  a  liar  and  cursed  on  account  of 
his  heresies.  These  blind  men,  every  one  of 
them  honest  in  his  contentions,  being  sure 
of  having  the  truth  and  relying  upon  his  own 
experience,  formed  schools  and  sects  and  fac- 
tions, and  behaved  in  exactly  the  same  way 
as  you  see  the  priests  of  the  different  creeds 
behave.  But  the  master  of  the  noble,  mighty 
elephant  knows  them  all ;  he  knows  that  every 
one  of  them  has  a  parcel  of  the  truth,  that 
every  one  is  right  in  his  way,  but  wrong  in 
taking  his  parcel  to  be  the  whole  truth. 

"  Not  one  of  these  sectarians  observed  the 
fact  that  the  elephant  was  perfectly  white, 
and  a  marvel  to  see,  for  all  of  them  were  pur- 
blind. Yet  I  would  not  say  that  they  were 
either  dishonest  or  hypocrites.  They  had 
investigated  the  truth  to  the  best  of  their 
ability. 

"  The  master  of  the  elephant  is  the  Tatha- 
gata,  the  Enlightened  One,  the  Buddha.     He 


104  Mind  Over  Body 

has  brought  the  white  elephant,  symbolizing 
strength  and  wisdom  and  devotion,  into  the 
land  of  the  blind ;  and  he  who  listens  to  the 
Tathagata  will  understand  all  the  schools,  and 
all  the  sects,  and  all  the  factions  that  are  in 
possession  of  parcels  of  the  truth.  His  doc- 
trine is  all-comprehensive,  and  he  who  takes 
refuge  in  Him  will  cease  to  bicker  and  to 
contend  and  to  quarrel." 

—  Translated  by  Paid  Carus. 


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